


Summer Fruits

by Oceans_Away



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Anal Play, Aphrodite would be proud of you Artemis, Dildos, F/F, F/M, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hermes can get it, Loss of Virginity, Multi, Oh Sugar Snaps, Sexy cupcake, Slightly kinky power play vibes, Smut, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:40:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24670024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oceans_Away/pseuds/Oceans_Away
Summary: In Persephone's first days living with Artemis, before the events of the comic kick off, Hermes finds himself feeling frustrated, Artemis finds herself questioning TGOEM, and Persephone finds herself craving a new experience. As their curiosity and desires collide, they're in for one Tartarus of a night.Chapter 1 - Heavy pettingChapter 2 - Heavier pettingChapter 3 - All smut all the time
Relationships: Artemis/Hermes (Lore Olympus), Artemis/Hermes/Persephone (Lore Olympus), Artemis/Persephone (Lore Olympus), Hermes/Persephone (Lore Olympus)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	1. Under a Plum Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermes is itching for mischief. When Artemis shows up asking for help with hunting practice, things take a turn for the unexpected and spiral out of control.

“GO DOWN, BITCH!”

Hermes punched the attack button over and over, raining sword blows onto the pixelated, bellowing minotaur. It exploded with a tinny roar and square blobs of blood sprayed across his TV screen.

“YES! Who’s the mightiest hero in all the Aegean!” 

He slammed the controller down and waited for the next level to load. It was slow. This was the problem with getting out the retro games. He slumped on the couch, leaned on his arm and looked out of the window. The day was fresh and bright. He wanted to be outside, but he’d promised himself he wouldn’t go out unsupervised. He was in one of his funks. But for Hermes, funks didn’t mean the blues, they meant the Pinks. At least, that’s what Hecate called them. He got these sporadic bursts of energy, itching and exciting and spurring. Everything around him felt charged, like if he touched anything, it would burst and unleash some poltergeist to start causing trouble. He longed for trouble. Everything became an unlit wick, and unfinished song, a thwarted plot, wrong and out of place. It all needed shaking up and resettling, reordering, no, re-chaos-ing. Chaos. Change. Mischief. Gods, he wanted mischief. But, he knew the Pinks made him unpredictable and difficult and that more than a few mortals had had to deal with unfair consequences from his impulses. So, he’d taken to self-confinement and getting it out of his system by annoying Apollo. You know, the moral choice. But Apollo was out. Hermes was now on his fourth video game of the day. Every time he felt the need to get out and re-wrong the world he just pushed all that energy into his grip on the controller and yelling at a minotaur. Or a sea monster. Or a go-cart. 

_Why is this taking so damn, fucking long to load?_

It had been eight seconds. 

He felt like he had a rash on his palms and back. His tongue kept moving in his mouth. His hair was falling in his eyes. Somewhere, a kid was stealing a bangle from a market stall. That kid had such potential. If he could just get down there… _No. Come on._ He sucked on his cheek. Somewhere else, a student was tuning out his teacher and seeing how far he could lift the braid of the boy in front of him with his stylus before he noticed. And a discontented cook was spiking the small beer for his master’s gathering of the well-to-do. And a man on the road was humming and planning a robbery. Every thread of every bit of everyday wickedness tugged at him until his skin broke out in gooseflesh. 

_Load. Faster. You. Fucker._

Eleven seconds.

A knock at the door. Hermes leaped out of his skin. He threw the controller away and his wings tangled at his ankles as he scrambled to the door. He almost pulled the handle off opening it. 

_Please be someone distracting._

“Artemis!” _Tartarus, yes._

She stood tall and striking, one hip jutting out and the slender, muscular sculpt of her body silhouetted proudly against the white afternoon sun. Her sleek hair was scraped back off her face in a high ponytail, so her large ears stuck out, jarringly cute against the hard, square cut of her jaw. A guard was strapped to one forearm and her bow and quiver were slung across her back. She looked like a character from today’s second video game. 

“Hey.” She flashed her teeth, bright against her midnight skin.

Hermes could feel his smile pulling peculiarly wide, his limbs jerking about restlessly. He drove his hands into his pockets and tried to look normal. “What’s up? I’m afraid Apollo’s not in.”

“Actually, I came to see you.”

Hermes’ ears pricked up like a rabbit’s. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I need to get some hunting practice in and it’s raining in my usual spot in the mortal realm. But also, Hera says I have to stop killing stuff up here.” She rolled her eyes. “So, I wondered if you wouldn’t mind helping me out?” She gave him a mocking look. “You’re the quickest, slyest god on Olympus, after all.”

Hermes raised an eyebrow and grinned coquettishly. He leaned on the door frame and tossed his hair out of his eyes. “So you’re calling me a stag. Or a fox.”

She smirked. “Or any number of woodland rodents.”

“I’ll take it.” He narrowed his eyes. “Hang on, are you asking me to run around in the woods while you fire arrows at me?”

“Yep.” She flashed her teeth again.

Hermes looked at her. He looked back at his TV. The loading screen had frozen. He looked back at her. He glanced at the sliver of abs between her spandex leggings and her tight black crop top. The top lifted her breasts a little and there was something oddly sweet and willowy about her long neck sloping into her narrow shoulders.

“Olympus to Hermes.” Artemis prodded his chest. 

He started and bounced off the door frame to stand straight again. “Sure, why not? I’ve got nothing else to do.”

“That’s the spirit.” Artemis smiled like a cat.

Hermes laughed. “Come in, I’ll just change.”

Finally, something to burn his energy up. His wings were already fluttering at his calves, ready to run. Artemis followed him into his room and leaned an elbow on his chest of drawers as he started to rummage through it, chucking unwanted garments over his shoulder and adding to the existing mess of clothes and games and empty packets all over the floor. A guitar he hadn’t played in years hummed as a t-shirt hit it. Above it, the poster for a band he didn’t listen to anymore was tacked up at an angle. His bed looked like a nest and one of his lamps was on its side. He wasn’t naturally tidy at the best of times, but the Pinks made him really bad. He’d tried to start cleaning up three times yesterday and just somehow made it worse. 

Artemis looked around the dump. “Did a hurricane go through here?”

Hermes shot her a look. “Your boring-ass brother, who I so charitably took off your hands, is a control freak and a neat freak, so I have to let all the messiness out in here.” He cast a balled-up pair of socks over his shoulder and it knocked over another lamp with a dull clunk.

“OK, but there’s a spectrum between neat and bio-hazard.”

Hermes found his exercise clothes and stood up, brushing her comment away with a flick of his fingers. “I have a system.”

“You do not have a system.” She laughed. “I’m pretty sure you’re morally against having a system.”

He grinned. “You really get me, Arty.”

She fired a finger gun. He paused. She blinked at him.

“Are you just going to stand there while I strip?” Hermes said after a moment waiting.

Artemis shrugged. “What? We've been friends forever, Hermes, I've seen you change like a thousand times.” 

“Yeah, when we were kids. Kids just waddle around naked.”

“Whereas adult-Hermes is the height of modesty.” 

Hermes leaned on the chest of drawers, mirroring her. “Fair point. But, you're in TGOEM, are you even allowed to be alone with a naked man?”

She groaned. “Here we go.”

He put his hands up defensively. “Hey, I'm just checking. It's your cult.”

“It's not a cult.” 

“Isn't it, though?”

“It's a club.”

“That you make life-restricting pledges to, for all of literal eternity.”

“They're not restricting.” Artemis insisted, straightening up and crossing her arms over her firmly bound breasts. “They're liberating.”

Hermes snorted, glancing down then hurriedly away.

“They are!” She pushed. Then a note of bitterness entered her voice. “Sex is such a socio-political force on Olympus, it's not like it actually gets to be fun for anyone.”

He rolled smugly to lean back with both elbows on the dresser. “I think Aphrodite would disagree.” 

“No, for her it's work.”

“People can enjoy their work.”

Artemis made the sound in her nose that she made when she’d had enough. “Whatever, Hermes. By some miracle you've avoided this, but as the realm’s gossip-in-chief, you must know what I'm getting at.”

Artemis was such a perfect balance of order and chaos. She was self-controlled and neat and principled and she thrived on routine. She moved through her life in clean, trackable phases, like the moon. But she was also a creature of instinct, temper, easy to let loose. He shrugged coyly. “I've got an inkling.”

“There.” She huffed. “So, TGOEM lets me formally remove myself from that whole mess. It lets me just be one of the guys.”

That pricked Hermes under the nagging tickle for trouble. His smile flickered. He looked at her properly, her frown more than just a knot of exasperation. “Artemis.” He said tentatively. “Do you think you would have stopped being one of the guys if you started dating?”

Artemis’ frown turned sceptical. “Wouldn't I?”

 _Shit. This just got real._ He stood, frowning too, the back of his neck going cold. “What? No. Of course not.” He stooped a little to make sure she couldn’t avoid his eye. “Why would you?”

Artemis’ cheeks turned blackberry. She bunched her shoulders and replied half to him and half to some point over his left shoulder. “Because.” She puffed out. “I'd stop being your sister and start being a ‘woman’”. She did little air quotes and it looked dumb. 

He couldn’t resist laughing, mimicking the gesture mockingly. “Dude, you're a ‘woman’ whether you're having sex or not.” He sobered but his smile stayed on his lips. “And you've never been my sister.”

“You know what I mean though.” She waved him away and turned her body to stop facing him squarely, speaking with a cool tone to the wall behind him. “I didn't want you, anybody, to…” She searched for the word. “Reconceptualise me.” She looked down. “I liked myself how I was.”

Hermes felt a hollow ache in his stomach. How had he never known this? How was he finding this out now in his bedroom in the middle of the Pinks in casual pre-workout jibber-jabber? He stepped round to stand square with her again, still stooping to look straight into her sharp, almond eyes. “And you should, that person rocks.” He realised he sounded frustrated, he forced his voice softer. “But that person isn't who she is because she's a virgin. She's who she is because she's Artemis. People were always going to reconceptualise you, we were growing up, but you'd still be Artemis.”

Artemis gave a small shrug and rubbed her elbow. She half-smiled at him. 

Hermes felt his feet sink into the carpet, he felt heavy. He rubbed the cold patch on the back of his neck. “This kinda sucks, I wish you'd told me this before you joined.”

“Don't worry about it.” Artemis cast her arms down and spread them breezily. “It wasn't the only reason. I thought it through.” 

He squinted, unconvinced. “Right, thinking, famously a talent of yours.”

“Shut up!” She shoved his chest with a grin and it jerked a laugh out of him, lightening him again. “Anyway, fine, I'll turn around.” She spun on her heel and snapped her fingers rapidly over her shoulder. “But hurry up! I'm not here to chitchat, I'm here to hunt.”

*

They raced through the woodland park like gusts of wind, rocketing through the trees so fast they became nothing but streaks of red and indigo across the golden-green. Hermes’ wings propelled him forward, his feet barely skimming the grass and his skin rushing. This was what he needed, freedom, oxygen, he was high, he was a javelin. He pointed his body and leaped over a fallen log, his rhythm didn’t even hiccup. He could feel his muscles working, his pulse pounding in the insides of his thighs and all across his chest. The air streamed through his pores. The stuffiness of the house was blasted away by the scents of grass and dandelion and ripening fruit.

He could sense her behind him, catching up, sending excited shivers up and down his spine that fizzed in the roots of his hair and the small of his back. Her gait was heavier than his. Her speed was a matter of strength. Her feet beat the ground and launched her forward in wide, powerful strides. He kept thinking about her strength, about being caught. She was smaller than him, but she was precise and unyielding. She could snap him like a twig. A tuneful twang broke his thoughts and an arrow shot past his cheek, nicking his hair. It snagged his laughter and dragged it from him as it zoomed away. He followed it. He ran faster.

Artemis glared after Hermes like a falcon after a sparrow. He was quick, so quick he blurred at the edges. But he was also erratic. His arms and legs were wild as he ran, like a child, like some mad spirit. It was a common characteristic in prey animals. Their speed was all panic and desire. She could taste it on the air, like nettles. She vaulted the log with ease and landed hard, sending a quake through the ground. She used it to bound forward. Her heart was steady and her blood thumped like a war drum in her ears as she plucked an arrow and cocked her bow. The way her muscles aligned when she drew the bow was uniquely satisfying. She felt herself grow, lock into motion with every celestial object, each point on her body a star in a constellation. The way he laughed when her arrow skimmed so close to him made her rush. It purged her body. All day, she’d been feeling tangled and cramped and hungry for something she couldn’t define. The hunt righted her, made her whole. It was still hungry, but it was the kind of hunger she understood. It was strange though, letting that hunger look like Hermes.

Hermes whooped and threw a cackle over his shoulder. Her gaze was ferocious and her jaw was set, pushing her mouth into a stern pucker that caught his eye a little too long. He crashed into a tree. He hollered in pain and rolled to lean back against it while he clutched his shoulder. Artemis skidded to a halt about twenty feet away, her hand flying over her mouth but failing to hide her amusement.

“You hurt?” She stifled a laugh.

Hermes flexed his shoulder, catching her grin. “Just my pride.”

“That was pretty embarrassing.” 

“Giving you time to catch up.”

An arrow zipped and pinned the loose shoulder of his t-shirt to the tree. His heart punched his ribs and he scrabbled his heels in the dirt in shock. “What the…” He tried to pull the arrow out, but it had split the bark and embedded deep in the trunk. He wrestled with it. His ears prickled at the sound of the bowstring. In a snap decision, he dropped to his knees, slipping out of his top, and tumbled away from the tree, springing back up into a run as another arrow thunked into the wood where his face had been seconds before. The air whooshed around his torso, cool and enlivening. He found his speed again.

Hermes got his pace back up even faster than Artemis expected. She coursed forward, rippling his discarded shirt as she blazed past. She drew closer. She eyed his back. The subtle definition of his musculature sharpened and smoothed with his propulsion, his shoulders rolling and his legs lengthening and his ass tight in his small shorts. She could hear his panting and the clip of his wings on tree roots and ferns. _You're a ‘woman’ whether you're having sex or not. And you've never been my sister._ What did he mean by that? Did he not think they were that close? Did he think of her differently to how she’d always assumed? _People were always going to reconceptualise you, we were growing up._ She’d always felt like a kid with him, running through the woods, dropping popcorn down the backs of each other’s shirts, sending each other memes in the middle of workdays. But lately, she hadn’t wanted to be a kid with him. She’d been catching herself looking at him when he stretched up to reach for something, or smiled at his phone, or chewed gum. His body had stopped just being the thing that carried her friend around, it had started looking like a series of interlocking, individually crafted, individually interesting parts. And he was always coming round now, to see Persephone, the two of them filling the house with giggles and blushes and sly touches, bringing out sides of them both that she hadn’t been privy to before. Their bodies beside each other in the light from the window looked like ripe cherries on the branch. _That person isn't who she is because she's a virgin. She's who she is because she's Artemis._ What was “Artemis” to him? To them? What did she want it to be? She shook her head and pushed herself on.

 _I'd stop being your sister and start being a ‘woman’._ The words bobbed up in Hermes’ mind, above the surface of the high. What had that meant? Did she see them as siblings? Sure, they’d been friends a long time, but siblings? That was an uncomfortable thought. The look on her face in that conversation had been unsettling, it unsettled him again as he recalled it. Something was up. Was it to do with him? Had she really taken a vow of chastity so he wouldn’t treat her differently? Treat her badly? Was that what she thought of him? A sting went through his veins. Hermes the thief, Hermes the mischief-maker, Hermes the pot-stirrer, the agent of chaos, the difficult and distractible and devilish. The way his want and his energy and his attention pinged about like a pinball caused him enough trouble, so he’d at least thought he had a right to enjoy the persona. But Hermes the asshole? Hermes the disruption? Hermes the guy who made you feel like you couldn’t go ahead and live your life? Was that what he’d been for her when she was making this huge decision? He suddenly hated the nudge of her determined eyes on his back. He felt a lump in his throat. He swallowed hard, took off from the ground and flew into the welcoming thicket of the branches.

He melted into shadow. Artemis reeled about, scanning the canopy, but the leaves made a carnival medley of shapes and colours and she couldn’t discern anything solid. She prowled, straining her ears. Something was winding tight at her core, tingling between her legs. She fired an arrow at random into the branches. It whisked the leaves and she heard it notch into wood. She cocked another arrow and stilled. 

Silence.

Silence.

A rustling burst.

A weight slammed onto Artemis and she yelped as her arrow shot wide and she tumbled in a mess of scarlet and flailing limbs and the sharp scent of sweat and the scrape of hot, misty, tacky, hard flesh. She landed with a thud on her back and blinked up in shock at Hermes’ sharp face and wildfire hair. He was on all fours over her, caging her in his body. The effort of catching his breath coursing down his torso. His eyes were shadowed but alight. Her heart began beating faster than when she was running, the blood soared in her cheeks. She could feel his heat like it was a solid force touching her. Was he touching her? She glanced around him. No. He so nearly was, though. Just a little move here or there and it would be skin on skin. She suddenly felt extremely aware of every inch exposed by her crop top. Something in her kicked out against it. She growled at him and lunged, throwing him off her and pouncing with the momentum to pin him and crush him into the grass, trying to extinguish his heat. She weighed him with her seat and seized his wrists and clamped them down above his head. She bared her teeth like a wolf. The look in his eyes changed, it became even brighter, dazzlingly so, and almost dreamy. His mouth fell open, his lip jutting and belladonna red. She could feel his pulse thumping in his wrists under her palms. And then she felt something else, rising to her seat, growing, hardening. Surprise shot up her body. She looked wide-eyed down at where they joined at the crotch. Then she glared indignantly back into his face.

A small smile peeked out of the corner of Hermes’ mouth and he shrugged innocently, drawing out the definition in his torso. “See? TGOEM doesn't do anything to stop the basic chemical reactions.”

Artemis’ cheeks burned. “Well… stop reacting!”

“Kinda too late?” He splayed his fingers. “Chemistry’s there now, not much to be done.” He cocked an eyebrow and lowered his voice. “Can't deny it, Arty, we do have some chemistry.”

She flushed and recoiled. “What? No we don't!” 

Hermes pulled an infuriating face. “You just chased me like a fox after a bunny rabbit. For an hour. That really didn't have any effect on you?”

“No!”

He grinned, his canines glinting. “Then why are you still grinding on my cock?”

Artemis’ hips froze. She clocked what she’d been doing, the warm tingling spreading from beneath her abdomen. She huffed angrily and lurched off him to sit with her legs tight together and bunched up to quell the sensation. She ground her teeth. “I hate when you're like this.”

Hermes sat up and looked at her with the mirth dimming in his face. “Like what?”

She glared at him and her cheeks were glimmering like dusk and her eyes were deep, jet black. “Not everything is a joke, Hermes. I made a decision, an important decision, and you're undermining it.”

Hermes felt a burst of annoyance in his stomach. “I don't think I'd be able to undermine it, if you were happy with it.”

Artemis’ voice turned to granite. “Not everything is about happiness. I made a decision.”

Hermes on his best day wasn’t good with stony statements about duty and honour over happiness and freedom. Hermes with the Pinks felt them like searing tar being poured on his bare body. People made sacrifices to the gods, the gods weren’t meant to be the offering. He felt his guts writhing, like a python was inside him trying to strangle the very idea of duty. His voice rose unbidden, he leaned forward. “You made a decision to stop deciding. I respect every individual time you turn someone down, but you said no to yourself once and now you're never allowed to say yes again and that's hot garbage. And what's that supposed to mean, ‘not everything is about happiness’?” He saw something shift in her face. It halted him. He pulled back. “Arty, are you sad?”

Artemis rolled her eyes and groaned. She collapsed back onto the grass and covered her eyes with her forearm. “We're not having this conversation.” She said flatly.

Hermes flopped back too, blowing a strand of hair out of his face and grumbling. “OK, let's just bottle up our emotions, that's cool and healthy too.”

They lay under the canopy for a while, absorbed in the buzz and chirrup and scuffle of the woodland. It soothed the strained silence, made a kind of rickety rope bridge over the gulf that yawned between them in the inch and a half that separated their shoulders. Hermes remembered lying beside her in the grass as a child, spotting squirrels, and as a teenager, trying weed for the first time. He puffed out a long breath and imagined smoke pluming from his lips, flowing like sea foam, carrying all his heat out into the air, making mischief part of the atmosphere, taking it beyond his control. 

When Artemis spoke again, the defensiveness had gone from her voice, as if she'd been blowing smoke too. She lowered her forearm, leaving a flush across her eyes, and murmured up to the leaves. "It’s just, I spend all my time with two people right now, you and Persephone. And you’re both so… You’re both so…" She tutted, searching for words, then started to gabble. "Well, OK, for starters, neither of you are ever fully dressed, just ever. What’s up with that? And you're, like, up close. Neither of you have any personal boundaries. You’re just all…" She looked with a deep elderberry blush into the branches and flapped her hand around, gesturing to her body. Then she ploughed on. "And I do think that TGOEM does a lot for me, for my work and myself. But also. Sometimes. It’s." She paused and the final word thunked out like a candy bar from a vending machine. "Hard." 

Hermes watched her throughout her speech, watched her proud, playful face tinge new hues of shyness and reluctance, watched her fists ball and her strong, archer's fingers flex. A bubble bobbed and popped in his stomach. His smile was stealthy and in place before he could stop it. "Are you saying I’m a thirst trap?" 

Artemis rolled her eyes and groaned again. "Maybe a bit." 

Hermes' grin erupted and gushed over his face, sparkling and sweet and promising to be very bad for you, like he was a shaken up can of cherry soda. 

Artemis finally made herself look at him and when she saw his blinding grin she flared with agitation and wished fervently that the ground would swallow her up. She punched his flank, but she might as well have flicked the lid on a jack-in-the-box. He broke into peels of high, staccato laughter, boiling over with it, clutching his middle and crunching his torso, his hair and the leaves jostling with it. 

Artemis felt his laughter stirring her own, but it clanked against hard embarrassment and anxiety and irritation. "Shut up!" She barked and punched him again. 

Hermes guffawed once more, then coughed out the final scraps of his humour, cleared his throat theatrically and calmed. He turned his head to face her, cheeks still glowing and eyes still effervescent, a joyfully volatile potion bottle of a god. He held her gaze as he spoke. "Do you remember, when we were kids, like 10 or something, the time you got stuck up a tree?" 

Artemis bristled. "I did not get stuck. I was just working out the most efficient route down." 

"Sure." Hermes said. "And I flew up to rescue you." 

"You interrupted my route planning because you got bored waiting."

"Sure. And then you got scared of flying while I was carrying you down." 

"I got frustrated at being interrupted and hefted about." 

"Sure." His smile turned a little wistful and he lowered his eyes. "So, I was holding you round the waist. And you were wriggling about like a fucking fish and rubbing all over my body with yours. And your hair was all messy and in my face.” His fingertips strummed his abs. “And you smelled of donut frosting."

Artemis raised her eyebrows and glanced to his unsettled hands. "Um. OK." 

Hermes swallowed, his voice box springing under the fine skin of his throat, husking his words. "And then we landed and you pushed me off and you glared at me and your eyes were all popping and sparkly and you were like -" He smirked and put on a squeaky, snooty voice. “Hermes! Do that again and I’ll beat you up!”

Artemis squawked indignantly. "I did not sound like that!" 

He dropped his voice back with a chuckle. "You sounded exactly like that."

Artemis prickled. "What is this even about?" 

"Look.” Hermes huffed out through his lips so they vibrated. He bit his lip. His eyes dimmed, sincere. “That was the day I realised what grown-ups were talking about when they said ‘sexy’. You were fierce and passionate and energetic and wilful and pretty and… you weren’t just some pal anymore. It didn’t change anything, I still wanted to be your friend, I still really liked hanging out with you, it didn’t make me want anything more from you or feel like it put conditions on our friendship. But you were sexy now. It was just another thing you were. It didn’t get in the way of anything, and it doesn’t now. You’re still sexy as fuck. And you’re still my friend.”

Artemis felt her mouth go dry and something snake around her spine. “Why are you saying all this?”

Hermes rolled onto his side, propped up on his elbow, and fixed her with the look kids give their teddy bears when they’re talking about nightmares. “Because I’m really freaking out that you might have made an eternal commitment to unhappiness because of me.” His brow crinkled. “Because I need you to understand that not being in TGOEM doesn’t stop us being friends, like bros for life, and that being in it doesn’t stop you being really fucking hot. And that you can have anything you want and still be the fierce and passionate and energetic and wilful and pretty goddess that they fear and love down there.”

His eyes were full. She couldn’t tell what of, but it wasn’t mockery and it wasn’t charm. A warm, strangely hopeful note reverberated in her chest, then lilted into melancholy and died away. Her head felt fuzzy. She stood and turned away, stretching out her legs, feeling adrenaline seep back into them. She clawed around inside herself for something concrete to latch onto. “I haven’t made an eternal commitment to unhappiness.” She said resolutely. “The point of making a commitment is that it transcends emotion, it’s bigger than what you want or what you feel. Sure, sometimes it’s a challenge, but then you prove yourself by overcoming that challenge.” She set her jaw, staring ahead into the labyrinthine shadows of the woods. “This is just another opportunity to prove myself.”

Hermes’ skin sparked like he’d been slapped. His compressed restlessness snapped its bonds and lashed out. The chaos call in his blood ran rampant. Fuck judgement, fuck patience, fuck thinking before you speak. He was an outlaw, a vagabond, the fucking god of breaking the rules. Enough was enough. He stood hotly. “Well, maybe I don’t want to be an opportunity for you to prove yourself!”

Artemis wheeled around. “That’s not what I’m saying!”

“Sure sounds like it!” 

Artemis was going darker than the night sky in Winter, darker than the bottom of the sea. “Not everything is about you and your sex drive, Hermes!”

“Not everything is about you and your pious journey, Artemis!”

“I am not pious!”

Hermes threw his hands in the air. "No! You just think happiness is a barrier to virtue, and friendship is eternally ruined by sometimes thinking someone’s hot!”

She glowered at him, storm clouds in her eyes, hissing like a viper. “You’re such a child, I don’t have to justify myself to you.”

She whipped round and started to stalk away, leaving her bow and quiver discarded in the grass between them. Hermes hopped over them and marched furiously after her. “Not me.” He jabbed. “Just TGOEM. ‘Can I have an emotion today, Hestia? Or would that get in your way?’ ‘Athena, I’m so sorry, my pulse raised slightly while I was training, I’m not worthy.’ ‘Your daughter looks nice in that dress, Demeter, maybe I should pluck out my eyes!’” 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“I could learn, if you would say anything that wasn’t just spouting doctrine!”

“Shut UP!”

She took off like a peregrine, shooting into the air to soar away, her feet kicking into a sleek, determined point. 

Hermes’ heart bucked. “Oh no you don’t!” His wings whipped and he hurtled after her, noosing her round the waist with his arms and hanging on with all his strength, his legs swinging absurdly.

She jolted and struggled savagely, shoving at his forearms and batting at the top of his head. “GET OFF!”

He snapped his teeth at her hand and hugged her so tight his elbows felt like they might pop. “You are one of my best friends in all the realms, and I am not letting you buzz off until we have. Sorted. This. Out!”

“You’re such a DICK!”

“FINE BY ME!”

She was twisting and thrashing like an anaconda, the static between her lower back and his chest crackling. Her hair tossed and her fingers raked in his hair and his face was squashed against her strip of bare skin and scorching with her heat. She smelled of the grass and the earth and the run. She smelled of donut frosting.

She whacked her heel into his gut and winded him brutally. His wings spasmed and he dropped like a sack of stones, but he clung on with all his strength. If he was going down…

They plummeted and slammed into a plum tree and tumbled to the ground, tangling and scrapping in a violent frenzy. He snatched at her gouging hands and grabbed her wrists and threw his weight behind his snarl. He pinned her, caged by his knees with her talons strapped into the grass by his grip. He glared down at her, his heart hammering and his skin on fire and his breath scratching his lungs like thorns. She returned his glare, her eyes full of indigo smoke and silver lightning. She fell still, but trembled with tension, grinding her teeth and panting so her chest jerked up and down and the tendons in her throat ridged. 

“Artemis!” His voice came coarse, angry, pleading. “Stop running!”

Her glare intensified.

Their hearts pounded once. 

Their mouths locked.

Heat flooded Hermes as Artemis seized him by the roots of his hair and wrenched him to her. His legs buckled and he collapsed with a wave of confusing relief, pressing her into the soft give of the earth. As his body lined to hers, he felt a tremor dance through her and he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, trying to absorb every flicker of her dazzling electricity, to feel every movement of her snaking body as she scooped her hips up and rocked against him. Her ankles crossed behind him and pushed him down by the small of his back so his cock met her grind, the thin veil of fabric rubbing like a match strike. Their skin grazed across their abs and their sweat sizzled and his bare chest and nipples chafed on the spandex of her top and stung deliciously. Her kiss was ravenous, demanding. She knotted her fingers deeper into his hair, sending prickling, enticing pain down his spine. She levered his lips apart with hers and coiled her tongue around his. He fought to match her, moving hungrily on her, his fingertips digging into the muscle of her back until his knuckles bleached. His blood was cantering around his body desperately, elatedly, casting everything out of his mind except this sudden, shocking, striking desire. 

Her writhing in his arms and against his torso was maddening. He clutched her harder and dug his toes into the soil and thrust forward, grinding his cock on her hard. She gasped and moaned low into his mouth and he shivered. He grazed his lips along her cheek and dove to her neck and sank his teeth into it. Her back arched and a bolt of pleasure knocked the breath out of him.

“Oh…” Her voice was shaking in his ear. “Oh shit… Oh Gods…”

Hermes eased his teeth away and silked over the dark crescents with kisses. “Oh Sweet Scylla and Charybdis…”

He relaxed one hand on her back and felt it tremble as it thrummed with the need to touch her. He flexed the tremble away and stroked it softly down her back, over her ass and up around her thigh. She felt wonderful; firm, supple muscle moulded into smooth, subtle curves. He drew in a steadying breath, her earthy, warm scent dizzying him, mingling with the fresh sweetness flowing from the clusters of ripe, dark plums overhead. He carefully, slowly, traced his touch to her stomach. Then down, sneaking between them, his own hardness pressing the backs of his fingers. He curled his hand to her shape, mapping her, scouting for her sensitivity. He trailed the end of his nose along her neck, breathing her scent again, then brought his mouth back to hers. He was more controlled this time, kissing her deep, fastening his lips to hers and sighing at the connection. Her eyes were closed, her fingers were teasing the nape of his neck. He moved his fingers cautiously, figuring her out, waiting for the signal for more. 

_Here?_

Her breath whisked and she made a high sound, her pelvis jolting into his hand. 

_There._

He pressed down with his fingertips and circled. 

Her chest rose and fell steady against him in the same rhythm as his touch, her tongue circling on his, mirroring the motion of his fingers. He sped up, just a little. He pressed deeper, just a little. He was prickling all over, half his body rebelling against his forced slowness, half glorying in it. He sucked her lower lip to a gorgeous pucker as he pulled from the kiss and ducked to dust his teeth on her ear. He whispered without thinking. “Tartarus, Arty, I can’t believe how much I want you.” He slipped his fingers to her seam and pressed through the fabric.

She froze. 

He felt her stiffen in his arms, felt her breath halt.

He hit the grass with a bone-shattering bang. Before he even realised he’d been thrown, Artemis was on her feet and hurrying out of reach. He came to, scrambling to his feet frantically as he saw the edges of her form wisp.

_No no no no no no no!_

She was wreathed in indigo smoke as she ran, her hair was flowing into it, her feet sparking with silver.

“Artemis, wait! I’m sorry!”

There was a rumble in the earth. And she was gone. 

A stray tendril of purple slithered into the branches.

Hermes felt all his energy desert him, leaving a hollow, gnawing void. He collapsed back against the plum tree and a black-violet orb dropped and thunked into the grass, splitting open and oozing honey-gold. He raked his hands into his hair, tracing the paths of her absent fingers. He chewed on his lip.

“Fuck.”


	2. Raspberry Ripple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Artemis and Persephone settle down for a roommates movie night, but the events of that afternoon are still fresh in Artemis' mind and things soon heat up.

Persephone stirred the cup of cocoa on the counter in front of her and peeked across the breakfast bar at Artemis. Artemis was reading Deer and Hound Magazine and had been absorbed in the short editorial, about whether hunting was more ethical with transformed mortal wrong-doers than normal animals, for a good half hour. Persephone was sure she hadn’t turned the page in all that time. Her lips were pursed tightly and her jaw was restless. There was a little dent above her nose from a terse frown she’d been wearing since she got home. This seemed like a three marshmallow problem. Persephone carefully popped the pink puffs into the cocoa and slid the cup across the breakfast bar. Artemis reached for it and took a sip. She did not look up. 

“So…” Persephone propped her elbows on the counter and leaned over it on her tip-toes to peer at Artemis. “How was your day?”

The cup chinked as Artemis gripped it suddenly then flinched at the heat. “Fine.” She said stiffly.

“It’s just…” Persephone ventured gently, tucking a stray flick of pink, choppy hair behind her ear. “It’s just you seem a little out of sorts.”

The magazine scrunched in Artemis’ other hand. “Nope. I’m totally in my sorts, all up in them. My sorts are great.”

Persephone’s thick, black eyebrow squiggled in an unconvinced look. She sucked on her lip and changed tack. “How was Hermes?”

Artemis’ face froze. “He’s good. Same old Hermes.” She ducked behind her magazine.

Persephone frowned and drummed impatient fingers on the counter. Artemis’ narrow shoulders bunched as she sank further into the editorial and out of view. Persephone sighed and straightened up. “Don’t let that go cold.” 

A purple hand protruded from the magazine and scooped the cup behind the pages.

Persephone shook her head and walked away. She went to her room and sat on the bed, spreading her hands along the cool sheets and looking idly at the shapes her fingers made in the creases. For such a creature of habit, Artemis had proven to be quite the unpredictable roommate. So much of Persephone’s upbringing had been about learning how to be measured, demure, sensible. The way Artemis swung between crashing, eddying waterfalls of laughter and erupting firestorms of temper, between intense, unbreakable focus and batty, adolescent impulses, certainly kept Persephone on her toes. 

The cornflower blue of twilight was swallowing the sunset behind the gossamer curtain over her window. The dreamy dimness was a welcome relief from the turbulence of waking hours. She had only been on Olympus a few days and already her world had doubled, tripled, in size. Every time she stood, she felt a hundred new paths stretch from her feet to beyond the unknowable horizon. Every time she ate, the taste was unfamiliar. Every time she turned her head, a dozen new faces looked at her with curiosity. It was dizzying. And the dizziness was fun, but it was also throwing her badly off balance. Half of her keenly missed the feeling of coming home, of walking into a place that looked like her and smelled like her and that she knew so well she could wander around it with her eyes closed and end up somewhere safe and comfortable. But home had started to mean something different too. The more newness she encountered, the more she realised how much had been hidden from her, kept from her. Stolen from her, even. How much had she missed in all those years watering plants and getting good grades? How much world had her mother veiled just beyond the reach of her fingertips? How much could now be hers for the taking? Wasn’t she a goddess, after all? She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them. She imagined a cluster of daisies growing in her palms. She imagined venomous, blood red vines curling from her fingers, thorned and choking. In the twilight, in that quiet, magic, in-between hour, she wasn’t sure which image she preferred. 

Her hair tickled the back of her neck. She shook her head and flourished her hands to cast the image away. She patted her hair back to behaving; she’d only just got it how she liked it, for Elysium’s sake. Her mind ambled about for something less spiked to chew on. What was wrong with Artemis? Cocoa hadn’t got it out of her, even with three marshmallows. Artemis had seemed like such an open book at first, brash and regulated and plain-spoken. But now. Now she was more like a coral reef, tough and structured on the outside, but under the surface teeming with life. Wild, weird, warring life. Getting to know Artemis had been a deep sea dive, the moods and the explosions and the bursts of the bizarre all part of the adventure. Persephone smiled. She’d never fancied herself an adventurer before. Artemis intrigued her the way new isles and caverns intrigued the Argonauts. The only other person who had ever stirred that in her was Hermes, when he used to visit her in the mortal realm. He would swoop in among the nymphs and send them flapping and scattering like flamingos, hooting with laughter before he scooped her up and hugged her hello, his heat and his chilli pepper scent making her giddy. He was so raucous and rakish and unlike anything else in her world. The bottled essence of everything she longed for and feared in that far away home of the gods. He was possibility and risk and temptation incarnate. It had needled her a little when she arrived on Olympus and found him immersed in an existing group of much older, much closer friends, Artemis included. He’d come to visit her fairly often, but she couldn’t help but worry about being the odd duck he was taking pity on, out of place and unable to fall into step with his real life up here. They all had so many private jokes and old memories and ongoing plans that sometimes it felt like they were speaking another language. She missed her rogue. She missed being the flame when he played with fire. Artemis had been off with him today, her two adventures slipping away from her. She curled her fingers as if to rein them back.

“Persephone?”

Persephone turned to see Artemis’ face poking around her door like a gibbon’s around a large leaf. 

“Do you want to watch a movie?”

Persephone smiled and slid off her bed to follow Artemis to the living room. A little sprout poked from the carpet where her feet had landed. It spiralled up into a flower. It bloomed a chequered mix of scarlet and indigo.

*

_ Why does she always sit so close? _

Artemis wanted space. She wanted vast, cold, empty space between her and every other creature in the realms. The house was too enclosed and being alone in it had been as suffocating as being in company. But Persephone’s company was at least a pleasant kind of suffocating, drowning in a bath of wine. The little goddess had only been in her home a few days and already the environment was adapting to her. The smell of baking, the spritely smiles of new sprouts in the pot plants, the faint, ever-present aroma of peach and pomegranate. The way the sun shone a little brighter on the glass of the windows. Earth footprints on the doormat. Artemis had felt herself adapting too. Her temper had got worse, but it also cooled quicker. She was worrying more, smiling more, sleeping deeper with more vivid dreams. She had sat sipping the cup of cocoa, watching the marshmallows melt, pink goop swirling into the dark, and the warmth had eased the knots of tension in her gut. Persephone was the opposite of Hermes. She was the cream you poured into curry. 

Except now she was sitting close. Too close. Like, really close. The room was dark, lit only by the glimmer of twilight, a low, yellow lamp and the glare of the TV. It cast slippery shadows over Persephone’s body, curled up on the couch beside her in an irritatingly small dress that rode up high on her thigh. There were no sharp edges to her. She looked like she’d been made by a child building dolls out of bubble bath, her skin laced with sparkle, like gold flakes in rose liqueur. Her perfume was wending into Artemis’ senses, making her mouth water. Her tousled fringe hid her large, startling eyes, giving her an air of grace and mystery at odds with roommate movie night. Artemis shrank a little into her large, black jumper. She was too hot in it, but if she took it off her skin felt like it had been sanded, brutally sensitive. Her body was still in rebellion. She had showered, changed, punched some pillows, but nothing would get Hermes out of her system. His scent itched her nose, his whisper webbed her ear, his touch tingled on the small of her back and her neck and her abs. Somehow he was still pressing to her, still sending small ripples of sensation up her core. She crossed her legs tight. She kept herself resolutely still. She subtly clenched her pelvic floor and heated at the tremor of tense pleasure that resonated from it. Persephone shifted and her shoulder leaned to Artemis’ arm. The pressure was light, but it was there and it settled.

_ Gods damn it. _

The white bread hero of the movie had just killed a sea monster and now he was in the sexy MILF queen’s private chambers. They were sat by the fire, the red-gold light coating them, enclosing them. They kissed. White Bread pushed her down gently.

_ Aaaaand it’s a sex scene. For fuck’s sake.  _

The camera zoomed in on their torsos, focusing on their conjoined, rhythmic rocking. Artsy string music was playing. Artemis tugged on the collar of her jumper and swallowed.

_ This was supposed to be a monster movie. _

There was a little well of shadow between their hips. Sexy Queen tilted and drew her knees up to take him into her. In the firelight, White Bread looked almost scarlet, Sexy Queen looked almost indigo. Artemis’ mind drifted to a box under her bed, heart-shaped and covered in red glitter and tucked inside a petite, pretty bottle of clear, thick lube, and a purple silicone dildo, moulded with smooth bumps up the shaft so it looked like it had been squeezed out of a frozen yogurt machine. Aphrodite had given it to her for her birthday last year as a prank. Artemis had had her chased home by a horde of rabbits. But she’d kept it. It hadn’t been used. Yet. 

Persephone sighed. Artemis felt it in the rub of her shoulder on her arm. She glanced back down to her, prickling. “You OK?”

“Yeah.” Persephone replied wistfully. Her hand drifted to her neck and her fingers played just under the line of her hair. “Do you ever…” She trailed off.

Artemis gazed down at her expectantly. “Do I ever…?”

Persephone kept her eyes on the TV. “Do you ever think that maybe we’re missing out on something? Being in TGOEM, I mean.”

Artemis went instantly very hot and then very cold. She snorted too loud. “What? Nope. Never.” She looked hastily at the TV, bounced off the sex scene and back to Persephone, narrowing her eyes. “Why?”

Persephone shrugged, rubbing her arm again, stroking the soft wool of her jumper on her skin. “Just been on my mind a little, lately.”

Artemis grit her teeth against the sensation in her centre rearing up.  _ Why do you test me? _

“Have you ever had a crush on someone?” Persephone asked abruptly, still staring ahead.

Artemis’ pulse thumped. “NOPE.”

“OK.” Persephone said gently. “But, you know, it doesn’t have to be about having a crush. Like these guys…” She gestured at the TV.

_ Oh My Gods, is this scene still going? _

“I don’t think they even end up together, it’s just like…” Another shrug, another stroke. “A fun thing they do for a bit.”

Artemis felt hot inside her lungs.  _ Can we PLEASE talk about ANYTHING ELSE? _

“I guess…” Persephone continued, her voice lilting and a little breathy, like she was used to thinking these thoughts with a sigh on her lips. “I guess, I just feel a little like I agreed to be in TGOEM when I hadn’t met anybody yet, I hadn’t really lived. And now I’m here, on Olympus, meeting all these people, in this place where life really happens. People  _ live  _ here, you know? And sometimes it just feels…” She trailed off again.

Artemis’ chest had constricted. Her heart was beating fast and echoing in her stomach and between her legs.  _ What? It feels WHAT? Finish your gods-damn sentences! _

Persephone brushed a flick of pink out of her face and finally looked up at Artemis. Those enormous, sunset-pink, scintillating eyes hit her like a missile. She held her breath. She stared into them. The writhing bodies on the screen were reflected in her dark pool pupils.

“Is something wrong?” Persephone asked.

Artemis tried to speak and no words came out.

“Artemis?”

Persephone’s eyes were galaxies, they were deep and full of stars and they called the explorer. Artemis was an explorer at times, but more than anything, she was a hunter. She pulled her gaze from the tar pit of Persephone’s eyes and let it fall onto her body. She was soft, so, so soft, but she was also strong. Her fat cushioned a complex of thick, worked muscle. In a quiet enough room, Artemis could swear she heard the determined pound of her powerful heart, propelling her bravely forward. There was something underneath that candyfloss exterior, something wild and ruthless and courageous. The call of the hunt rang in Artemis’ body. The ghost of Hermes’ touch howled to it like a hound.

“Maybe it’s not something we have to miss.” She spoke before she’d decided to. She could feel the power to decide drifting quietly away.

“Huh?” Persephone blinked and cocked her head to one side like a parakeet.

“Persephone.” Artemis twisted her body to face her and leaned in a little. “Do you ever get tired of doing what you’re told?”

Persephone smiled, pink lightning. “Yes. All the time.” Her smile took on a quizzical, challenging twist. “But you never do what you’re told. You’re Artemis. The huntress. You’re so openly your own person.” Her round cheeks tinged hibiscus. “It’s why I admire you.”

Artemis felt warm, not the agitated, woolly heat of the day, a clean, smooth warmth. “I do do what I’m told. Constantly. I’m always conforming to expectations. Especially in TGOEM. Sometimes I wish I could… do something different.” She raised an eyebrow. She was in pursuit now, her body was shifting into it. “Break the rules.”

Persephone slowly drew her lower lip behind her teeth and let it bloom back, flushing dark and gleaming. Her chest rose and fell in one slow, cautious breath and her words rode it out in a murmur. “Me too.”

Artemis’ fingers tingled. She flexed them, her hand sliding from her lap to rest in the thin gap between the two of them. Persephone followed it with her eyes. Artemis lifted a finger and it brushed just above Persephone’s knee. “Do you, maybe, want to break a rule, right now?”

Persephone bit her lip harder this time and looked with a fizz of daring into Artemis’ eyes. “I really want to break a rule.” She plucked Artemis’ hand and laid it on the spot it had brushed. “Right now.”

They moved synchronised into their kiss, falling rather than leaning, both more pulled than pushing. Persephone’s lips met Artemis’ and Artemis was plunged into relief and excitement. The tuneless, rhythmless chatter of stress and frustration and worry that had dogged her for hours resolved into a single, clear, golden note that hummed throughout her body. Persephone’s mouth was satin and giving and wanting, her tongue hesitant but venturing. Artemis scouted deeper for her, drawing her out, the quickening of her breath making her heart skip. She closed her hand on Persephone’s knee and squeezed and stroked up to the hem of her dress, letting her plumpness fill her grasp. The longing for pursuit became keen, stinging, but she pushed it back. Persephone wasn’t the kind of quarry you chased down, she needed coaxing, she needed gentleness. Artemis reined herself back. But Persephone followed. Her hands closed on Artemis’ jumper and she pulled herself towards her, sliding her knee into Artemis’ lap and hardening her mouth on hers. Artemis blinked her eyes open in surprise and saw Persephone’s were screwed shut and her brow was crinkled and her chest was bobbing with her rapid breathing. Artemis flushed hot and smiled against her lips. She ran her hands to the small of Persephone’s back and pulled her to sit astride her lap, her hands travelling up and down her back, feeling her shape in the tight dress. Persephone was lifted willingly, sliding to pinch her thighs around Artemis’ hips and cupping her face so the perfume on her wrists filled her senses.

Artemis sighed helplessly into Persephone’s mouth and the heat in her body flared unbearably. She broke their kiss and thrashed to throw her jumper off, revealing her sports bra and letting her skin breathe and cool while she burned internally. Persephone’s eyes fluttered over her body and her fingertips crept from Artemis’ face and down her neck. Artemis shivered at the lightness of her touch, like a landing ladybird. Persephone’s fingertips crept over her chest. Her small, delicate hands folded over the compressed mounds of Artemis' breasts. They pressed just slightly. Artemis shivered again and plunged into another sweet, overpowering kiss. Persephone’s hands started to rock on her breasts, setting her nipples alight.

“You’re such a good kisser.” Artemis murmured headily against Persephone’s lips.

Persephone stroked one hand over her abs, tickling the dimples between them, the other cupped her breast and squeezed softly, running her thumb over the pip of her nipple tenting the fabric. “I love how your body feels.” She whispered.

Artemis ached. She stroked her hands down and hooked the hem of Persephone’s infuriatingly restricting dress. “I want to feel yours. Can I take this off?” 

Persephone nodded. Artemis’ heart stilled as she carefully peeled the dress up her body and off over her head, messing her hair so it stuck out at adorable angles. Her flesh spilled from the binding, her belly hanging and her white lace bra and panties pinching her curves and stretching a little, thinning the veil. She glowed rosy, a spray of magenta freckles on her shoulders and just under her collar giving her the look of a flower bed under the dappled light of an orchard. Her delicious, flowing roundness was so much more hypnotic unclothed. The gentle slope of her shoulders, the scoop of her breasts, the bowl of her hips, a perfect harmony of brushstroke shapes. Artemis swallowed and felt her cheeks colour. She dusted her hands down Persephone’s torso, Persephone quivered and it was contagious. 

“Holy Hounds.”

Persephone lifted her eyes to hers with a note of shyness, she tucked her arms in as if deciding whether to cover herself. Her face was glimmering with a deep blush. Artemis melted at it. She cupped Persephone’s face. “You are so pretty.”

Persephone smiled a little lop-sided and circled her pinky round Artemis’ belly button.

Artemis cleared her throat. “Scratch that, that was weak. You’re really beautiful, Persephone.”

Persephone beamed and leaned her brow to Artemis’. “So are you.” 

Artemis flooded with lightness and kissed her again. That pomegranate perfume was irresistible. She traced her lips to Persephone’s neck, along her shoulder and the rise of her breasts, holding her waist and rippling her fingers in her flesh. Persephone moaned and closed her tighter in her thighs, coiling her desire in her belly. Artemis kept her lips padding along Persephone’s breasts as she stroked up and peeled the lace of her bra down, revealing one large, rosebud nipple. She gazed at it, then closed it in her mouth and sucked, dancing her tongue on the point, sucking harder as Persephone gasped and pushed deeper into her mouth. Artemis felt Persephone’s fingers move from her body to the nape of her neck and clutch her, pulling her in. She dined on her hungrily. Persephone’s thighs chafed hers and she knew she was tilting her hips towards her. Her heart started to hammer, her breath came short. She rolled a tremble out of her shoulders and slowly ran one hand to the base of Persephone’s belly, brushing the top of her panties. She drew away from her nipple, eyeing the glisten from her mouth on it, then looked up to see Persephone had dropped her head back and was swaying a little with her eyes closed. Mesmerising. 

Artemis swallowed. “Can I touch you here?”

Persephone didn’t open her eyes, she whispered high. “Yes. I so want you to touch me.”

Artemis’ stomach flipped. Her fingers quivered on the hem. She took a steadying breath and slid her fingers down to the dark pink curls behind the lace. She took another breath and pressed. 

“Gods, Artemis…”

Persephone didn’t give her time to find her way. She put her hands on her shoulders and braced and pushed her pussy into her touch, circling her hips to guide Artemis’ fingertips into her sweet spot. Artemis gasped, a thrill shocking through her. She looped her arm around Persephone’s waist and drew her in close and started to rub her clit with tender zeal. Wetness sprang to her touch and a new scent entered the air, a drugging, invigorating scent. Persephone moaned musically and ran her hands to Artemis’ breasts and massaged her nipples through her sports bra with firm, eager fingertips. Artemis felt her bones turn to ignited oil. She clutched Persephone and sank her lips to her throat and drew the length of her fingers up and down her hot clit.

“Yes, Artemis, Oh My Gods…”

The doorbell rang.

They froze. 

Artemis’ jaw clenched. “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

*

Hermes had rehearsed his speech all the way up the path to the door. His wings battered anxiously at his calves and his fingers drummed on the stout, square box. Dark chocolate cupcake with blueberry buttercream frosting. An old favourite for an old friend. At least, he hoped she still was. “Artemis, I’m really sorry, I should have respected your boundaries, I shouldn’t have questioned your decisions. I care about you as my friend, and I got freaked out, but that’s no excuse, so I’m really… HI!”

He hastily cut off the end of his muttering as the door opened sharply, only a crack, and Artemis leaned into the sliver of light. She was wearing short leggings and a large black jumper that looked rumpled. Her eyes were a little glassy. Had she been asleep?

“Hermes!” She said with a strange lightness in her voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to apologise.” Hermes said, eyeing her overly breezy demeanour. “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine.” She said brightly, blinking rapidly.

Was she high? “You look flushed.”

“I’m fine.”

“OK.” He frowned then reoriented himself, speaking levelly. “Anyway, I’m really sorry about earlier.”

“It’s fine.”

He looked at the floor and ploughed on. “No, it’s not, it was bad friend behaviour. I really didn’t mean to…” He looked up and saw she was looking back into the house. She didn’t even seem to be listening. He prickled a little. “Are you sure you’re OK?”

She whipped back to him with wide eyes. “Yeah.”

“OK. Well.” He held out the box. “I got you this. Peace offering.”

He watched her nervously as she took the box and opened the lid. Her face flickered and softened a little. “Oh, you didn’t have to do that. That’s sweet.”

He shrugged, letting a held breath go. “So, still friends?” He looked at her with hesitant hope.

She smiled. “Yeah.” 

“Bros for life?”

“Bros for life.” 

Hermes sighed and dropped his shoulders, smiling at his sneakers. He looked back up and his smile fell as he saw her leaning back into the house again. “Was this a bad time?” 

Artemis snapped back again, sucking her lips in. “No!” She cleared her throat and jabbered a little. “I’m mid-workout. And it’s an intense one. That’s why I’m flushed. But I’ll cramp up if I pause too long.”

Hermes cocked his head suspiciously. Was she still mad? Should he have waited? Or texted first? “OK. I’ll leave you to it.”

Artemis grinned stiffly. “Thanks. Sorry. Thanks. Bye!” 

The door slammed in his face.

Artemis clapped her hand to her forehead and groaned. Persephone had just chased the echo of Hermes from her body and seeing him, war-banner red in the slit of light from the door, sent her flesh into a confusion of excitement and anxiety. She wanted to patch things up, get her Hermes back. But, right now? Really? She was aching and breathless and she probably smelled of Persephone’s perfume. Did she smell of Persephone’s perfume? She hurriedly pressed her nose to her shoulder. 

_ Pull yourself together. _

“Who was it?” Persephone’s petite form peeked round the door to the living room. 

Artemis’ eyes widened and her fluttering thoughts stilled. “Hermes.” She said briskly, tripping to Persephone and casting the cupcake box onto the coffee table. She caught Persephone’s hands and tried to pull her back to the couch. 

Persephone stopped her, pointing to the box. “What’s that?” 

“A cupcake.”

“Aw, what a sweetie!”

Artemis shot Persephone a disgruntled look, squeezing her hands. “Yeah. Anyway, shall we…”

“What’s the occasion?”

Artemis huffed. “No occasion.”

Persephone gave her an amused smile. “Well either there’s an occasion or he wants something.”

Artemis grumbled in her throat. 

Persephone giggled. Then her giggle turned dark, devious. She sneaked her hands under Artemis’ jumper, making her clench. “Well.” She said silkily. “In for a penny.” She tugged Artemis by her hem back to the front door and swung it open, wafting her hair and exposing her body to the night air, pimpling pink. “Hermes!” She called after the flame-flicker figure wandering back down the garden path with his hands in his pockets. 

Hermes turned and his eyes shot wide.

“Want to join us?” Persephone called.

Artemis’ heart leaped into her throat.

Hermes’ eyes goggled. “At _WHAT_?”

Persephone draped herself along the door frame and moved her hand from Artemis’ jumper to her back. She batted her eyes. “Come inside and find out.”

Hermes’ eyebrow raised so high it disappeared under his fringe. “Seriously?”

Artemis whirled to Persephone and hissed frantically. “What are you doing?”

Persephone gave her a coy shrug that jiggled her flesh, glancing sideways at her and teasing the small of her back. “Look, if we’re going to the bad thing, we might as well do it really good. He’s sexy and fun and experienced and we both have kind of a thing for him.”

Artemis flushed. “I do not have a thing…”

Persephone cut her off with a look.

“OK, maybe I do.” Artemis conceded brusquely, the realisation only just really hitting her and reverberating in her abdomen. “But…”

“Artemis.” Persephone pulled her closer and gave her a kind smile. “Take the night off?”

Artemis gazed down at the soft, soothing goddess. She looked along the streak of light from the house, illuminating Hermes’ angular, lithe figure like he was a piece of modern sculpture among the bushes. Her mind tangled with memories of his and Persephone’s touches. She smiled back at her, leaning into her hand. “One night.”

Persephone beamed, glittering. “One really good night.”

Artemis nodded and turned back to Hermes, beckoning him and rolling her eyes indulgently. “Get in here, you horn dog.”

Hermes zoomed to the door like a rocket. Persephone erupted with bubbling laughter and tottered back inside. Artemis caught the front of his hoodie and grinned at him keenly. He grinned back, looking gleefully curious. She pulled him hard and Persephone closed the door as he stumbled inside. Artemis pushed him back against it and pinned him, one hand on his chest and one leaning above his head. His eyes ricocheted between the two of them.

Hermes could sense it filling the house. Chaos. Change. Mischief. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his toes tingled. “OK, what’s happening?”

Artemis pressed harder on his chest with her knuckles, making him shrink back with her piercing eyes. “We’re taking the night off.”

He laughed a little nervously. “From?”

“From everything.” She replied. “But mostly from TGOEM.”

His stomach somersaulted. “Oh. Good.”

“Yeah.” She ran her finger down his chest and leaned closer, her warmth seeping into him. “Want to help corrupt a couple of maidens?”

Hermes’ smile was volcanic. This was the Artemis he knew. Confident, audacious, channelling her deep, primal, intoxicating hunger into inescapable pursuit. Artemis of the Wolves. Artemis, Light-Bringer. Artemis, Lady of Clamour. “Yes.” He breathed. “Definitely.” Then he swallowed. “But also, are you sure? And are we cool? And…”

Artemis yanked him by his hoodie ties and kissed him. All the thoughts crashed out of his head. He sank against her, his eyes closing and rolling back as her kiss slinked down his spine. She pulled away, nipping his lower lip.

“Never mind, deal with that later.” He gripped her arms, digging his thumbs into her biceps, and kissed her again, this time pushing back against her aggression. She always made him so competitive. 

She shoved him back and spun him and his eyes filled with the sight of unclothed Persephone, looking like a love potion, sparkling pink and biting her fore knuckle playfully.

“Wow, Perse, colour me surprised.” He chuckled, his pulse skipping.

Persephone stepped closer and looked up at him with large, bewildering eyes. She bobbed onto her toes and put her hands on his shoulders and whispered like she was telling a secret. “I’m hoping to be full of surprises for both of you.”

Hermes laughed with shocked delight. Artemis jabbed him in the back and he willingly stumbled into Persephone’s arms, catching him round his neck and drawing him into a dizzying, sugared kiss. How often had he watched her mouth as she talked or ate or pursed her lips as she worked? Finally, he could feel it, taste it. The blood rushed to his face and he wrapped her in his arms and lifted her up to kiss her deeper, her body soft in his embrace. Stealthy fingers crept up the back of his neck and pulled his hair. He fell easily back into Artemis’ grasp and craned his neck to kiss her over his shoulder. He fell between their mouths, soft and hard, giving and claiming. 

Artemis grabbed his hood, Persephone hooked his hands, and they pulled him, laughing, into the house.


	3. Cherry Pop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermes, Artemis and Persephone BANG! 
> 
> That's it.
> 
> That's 100% of what's in this chapter.

“My room or yours?”

“Just get back to the couch, it’s closer.”

Clothes were cast to the floor along the hall as the trio fell over each other’s feet back to the living room, the low, warm light glimmering on their skin. They passed kisses between them, flitting greedily between each other like bees. Mouths and hands ran along shoulders, down throats, around asses and up thighs. Their legs tangled and they kept nearly losing their footing, catching each other and giggling. Heat sizzled on their bodies, electricity sparking in the thin gaps separating their forms. They went headlong into their impulses and for a long, heady moment there was only the rush of blood and breath and the crush of flesh and fight to shed their clothes.

Hermes’ wings fluttered with thrill. His heart soared and his smile pulled at his lips unfettered. They had stripped him like harpies, down to his boxers, down to their underwear too, and now their hands were traversing every line of definition on his body, finding nerve-endings he’d forgotten were there. Artemis was at his back, all tooth and claw. He leaned back into her bites and scratches and groaned longingly in his throat. Persephone peppered his chest with kisses, her hands light and playful on his abs. He stroked her hair, thick and jostling like blossom. He whipped back and nicked Artemis’ ear with his teeth and snickered at her snarl. 

Having sex with a god was like nothing else imaginable. It brought your body into tune with all the ancient elements, it drilled to the deepest, most natural part of you, it gave you the power to stir the magma at the centre of the earth. Having sex with two gods. Well. Fuck. 

Persephone’s shyness, Artemis’ sternness, they evaporated in a surge of heat that clouded their bodies and made Hermes’ head spin. He slinked his body, trying to stoke it hotter, the air he gasped in scorching his lungs and his lips. Persephone’s mouth tasted of soda and Artemis’ tasted of cocoa. He drank deep, he scoured with his tongue, whipping their kisses wilder. He ducked and clutched Persephone’s round, tempting ass and dragged his tongue along the underside of her breast. She quivered in his hands and he moaned. He reached back and gripped the muscle of Artemis’ thigh and slapped it. She cackled and briefly curled her fingers round his throat and he shivered in glee. His cock pushed on the fabric of his boxers. Persephone pampered his shoulder with her lips and pressed to his torso and his hardness strained for her. Artemis dug her fingernails into his ass and he whined and she swallowed it in a hard kiss that made his knees go weak. They were puppeting him, dragging him to the depths. He clunked against something. The couch back. Persephone peeled away from him and his brow buckled, bereft, before smoothing in relief as Artemis took her place. She pushed him to perch on the couch back, scraped her fingers into his hair and nipped the end of his nose. He nipped her chin in return. The grin that passed between them filled him with comfort and anticipation. Persephone slipped behind Artemis and cuddled her waist sweetly, nuzzling her back. Artemis rolled her shoulders and leaned into her lips and teased Hermes’ scalp. 

He cupped her face, tracing his fingers on her square-cut jaw, and caught his breath. “And they say I’m the trouble-maker.” He husked.

Artemis clenched her fists on the roots of his hair, he fizzed. She shrugged. “Are they wrong? Here with two innocents. Stealing virtue as well now, God of Thieves.”

“Taking two prey at once now, Queen of the Hunt.” He pulled her into a kiss that brought their heartbeats into sync. He stroked his hands down her body and cupped her breasts and moaned into her mouth at how they felt in his palms. He liked that they were small, they fit to his hands, he could hold all of her, enjoy all of her. 

“Take it off.” She breathed.

“Tartarus, yes.”

She raised her arms and he and Persephone glanced at each other round her torso, joined hands and pulled the tight binding up and away. It left faint tracks in her dark skin. Persephone sneaked her hands round and joined him as he floated his touch back to Artemis’ breasts. Their hands, red and pink, stood out bright on her indigo flesh. Her nipples were like firm, ripe blackcurrants. Hermes flickered his thumb on one and she shuddered and kissed him again. He and Persephone harmonised their touches on Artemis’ body. When he bumped Persephone’s hand, he stroked up her forearm and she tucked round to kiss his fingertips and exchange a cheeky smile. He caressed Artemis’ breasts, abs, hips, legs, arms, cheeks, hair. He repeated his movements over and over. He couldn’t get enough of touching her, the way it made her eyes flutter and her shoulders roll and her hips rock forward. She stretched her neck like a greyhound and he kissed it adoringly. He took his lips to her breasts and softly sucked the underside, then the nipples, bringing the blood to the surface then tickling with his tongue.

Artemis moaned, her fingers still in his hair. “You’re so fucking gentle.”

“You like that?” He whispered with his mouth full.

“Yes. But fuck it. Be rougher with me.”

He smiled wickedly around her nipple, excitement pricking his skin, and bit her. She moaned loud and Persephone giggled. Hermes slipped his hand between her legs, snatched Persephone’s hand as it trailed the small of her back, and tugged it to cup Artemis’ pussy through her black cotton panties. He rocked a few times harshly to give Persephone the rhythm, then entrusted her with it and brought his hands up to Artemis’ in his hair, plucking them away. They exchanged a fiery glance. Then he clutched her thin wrists in one hand and bit her fingertips. With his other hand he slapped her thigh twice. He wrenched her neck by her hair and sank his teeth into the curve where it met her shoulder. 

“Yes!” 

Artemis’ legs almost gave out with the sweet shock and Persephone steadied her, kneading her clit like dough and watching Hermes’ pixie grin as he dragged his teeth up and devoured Artemis over her jugular. Artemis struggled to free her hands and he gripped like a vice and pinched her hip then twisted her nipple. She wriggled and gasped.

“I’m going to get you back for this.”

“Gods, I fucking hope so.”

He chewed her nipple and scratched her abs and pulled her hair and he boiled in his belly at the way she hissed and growled. His body itched for the same treatment, to glance the edge of pain. He wanted Artemis to set him on fire and Persephone to drown him. Images reeled in his mind, pink and indigo and scarlet. As his thoughts drifted momentarily, his grip slacked and Artemis wrenched her wrists free, seized both his nipples between finger and thumb and pinched them deep crimson. Hermes barked and coughed and laughed, tossing his head back and instinctively spreading his legs. When he looked back down, Persephone had come to stand at Artemis’ side and they were kissing, their full lips slipping over each other and moulding to each other’s shape. He smiled. It was gorgeous. Then he was laughing again as they broke apart and pounced, each pinning him with a hand on his abs, grabbing his underwear band with their other hand and yanking it down. His cock sprang up and nodded. Persephone squeaked and giggled, lapping his hip as she stood back up to lean on the couch beside him. Artemis raised a pleased eyebrow and stood with his boxers hooked on her index finger. They were bright turquoise with a pineapple pattern.

“Really, Hermes?” She smirked at them.

“I didn’t know to plan for this!”

She tossed them over her shoulder and stepped between his legs and traced her finger down the furrow in the centre of his chest. Her eyes turned a little misty as she looked down at his exposure. For a split second, he felt shy, but when she looked back up at him with a devilish gleam it chased that away. Persephone was looking too, more thoughtfully, almost studying him, biting the nail of her pinky finger. Hermes looked between them more softly.  _ It’s a first.  _ He reminded himself.  _ Let them take their time.  _

Artemis grasped his cock.

_ OK or not! _

Artemis gripped him with both hands, interlacing her fingers, holding him like an axe. She started to work him rapidly, pumping his shaft mercilessly. The pleasure and the intensity spiked him. He let out a rough string of curses and gasps and frantically covered her hands with his to still her, catching his breath.

“Can you…” He panted. “Can you go a little slower?”

He saw her colour a little. “Rookie mistake?”

He squeezed her hands reassuringly and shook his head. “Just want to make sure I don’t immediately stop being of use to you.” 

She stuck her tongue out at him and he and Persephone laughed. He bit his lip and gazed at her and started to guide her hands. Down to the base, up the shaft slowly, with a small, gentle twist, palm the tip, and back down with a harder grip. She took to it easily, she was used to handling weaponry after all, but he kept his hand there. He liked the feeling of her hands hardening and softening as they worked him. The intensity cooled and her warm, steady motion sent rhythmic waves of pleasure though his body. His cock was thrumming with it.

“This escalated fast.” He teased breathlessly.

“Not if it started this afternoon.” Artemis mumbled.

They glanced at Persephone, who seemed to be engrossed in watching the workings of Hermes’ cock and didn’t hear the comment. Hermes kept his gaze on her. Her eyes were round and curious and her nose was twitching like a hamster’s as she sucked her lip. He leaned to her and kissed her hair softly and whispered in her ear.

“How are you doing, Perse?”

She blinked up to meet his eyes and smiled. They kissed tenderly, her tongue a little more confident than before, seeking his out, dancing on it. He stroked his thumb on Artemis’ hand and put his other arm around Persephone and brought her close. She kissed him as she circled her touch on his nipple and tickled his collarbone and his belly button. He nuzzled her nose and laughed under his breath.

Artemis took one hand away and stroked her cheek to get her attention. Persephone looked at her with a twinkle. Artemis smiled and nodded at Hermes’ cock and Persephone hesitated a moment, then nodded. Artemis carefully took her hand and folded it under her own on his length and taught her the motion Hermes had set. Persephone let herself be led, her fingers moving as if she was memorising every detail of him. Artemis removed one hand and slipped it underneath and rolled his balls in her palm. He lost his breath and moaned, hugged Persephone closer and collapsed his brow onto her shoulder. He was wafted by pomegranate perfume. Persephone curled her free hand on the back of his neck and kissed the top of his head. Fuck, this was good, this was unmaking him. He let the pleasure build, felt himself fill their grasp and expand it, felt his muscles going numb. 

_ OK, their turn. _

He raised his head and licked the hollow of Persephone’s throat and whispered to her. “Has anyone ever gone down on you?”

Persephone’s chest bobbed with an intake of breath. “No. Not yet.”

“How about it?”

She gave his cock a teasing twist and nodded. “Please.”

He turned to Artemis with a much harsher gleam in his eye, tickled the inside of her wrist then the hem of her panties. “Hey Huntress, want to know how it feels to get eaten alive?”

Artemis crushed his balls and pain and elation zapped his spine. He jumped and yapped and pushed her back as she cackled. He dropped to his knees, snagged her panties and pulled them down in one sharp motion. Her hair was thick and black and her clit was large and glistened like a grape. Her scent went through him. He raised dreamy, dark eyes to her and she blushed, but her smile stayed daring. He reached up and took Persephone’s hand and drew her to stand by his shoulder. He peeled away her white lace with much more care. She was neater, daintier, but wetter, shining so it reflected in his eye. 

_ Fuck, I’m a kid in a candy store.  _

Artemis cocked her leg, tugged his fringe and brought his mouth to her. They moaned in unison as her spice flooded his taste buds. He curled the length of his tongue along her and furled it back, teasing her lips with his, closing his eyes and revelling in it. Another tug on his hair and he dived into Persephone. She was sweet and luscious and her juices puddled on his tongue and made him sigh devotedly. He stroked their legs and let them tug him between them, mixing their flavours in his mouth, getting drunk on them, his blood coursing with the crescendo of their moans. 

_ I think I might have been starving all my life, until this moment. _

Artemis had never felt anything like this. Her whole life revolved around training and working and knowing her body, and this obliterated everything she had learned. Hermes’ tongue explored her carefully, unearthing pathways of sensation she had never even imagined. It chimed deep in her abdomen and sang high on her skin. It was like he was mining for veins of gemstone in dark rock, bringing new glistens and shimmers to the surface. He sighed hot onto her and she shivered. He sucked her tender and occasionally dusted her with his teeth, tensing her core so she pulsed with anticipation. She wound tendrils of his wild hair around her finger and watched his enraptured face and worked on holding the sensation in her flesh, keeping it from dissipating, casting him away when it became too much, only to have him return moments later.

Persephone felt a fluttering under her skin. It was as if her whole body was a butterfly cage. She held her breath and tried to keep herself together as ripples of pleasure ruffled her insides and danced on her skin. She closed her eyes and colours burst in the darkness, as Hermes teased and taunted and traced her most delicate, most yearning flesh. He kissed her and stirred her and sucked her and serpentined in her puzzle box folds, reordering her, remaking her. Every time she felt an ache in an unexplored, waking part of her, he would find it and lavish attention on it, bringing it to boil, blowing on it to cool it, then flaying it fervently with his clever, slick tongue.

“Hermes!” She moaned, scooping her hips to encourage him. 

He chuckled against her clit and licked it with the point of his tongue.

She quivered. She was longing all over her body. The lace of her bra itched her, she needed to be free of confinement. With shaking fingers, she unhooked it and dropped it to the floor. Hermes eyes opened at the sound and he and Artemis both tilted their heads to look at her, the last one to be naked. She felt the heat rise in her face as they both stilled and stared. She felt tender and exposed, like peeled grapefruit. Her clit was wet from his mouth and it cooled and tingled as he pulled away, a gloss on his lips.

“Wow.” Hermes murmured.

“I know.” Artemis said.

Hermes’ poppy eye twinkled and he stood and walked round to Artemis’ back and hugged her waist and kissed her neck. “You really are the Hunter of Wild Beasts.” He teased. “Two catches, and such beautiful creatures too.”

Artemis puckered her lips and stroked his forearms crossed on her abs. 

“I know how you caught me. What about her?” He said.

Artemis looked at him quizzically. “You’re up to something.”

“I thought that was obvious.” He kissed her cheek. 

“Get to your point, Hermes, no one said you could stop.”

He chuckled and nipped her ear. “I think we’d make a good team on the hunt.”

“Oh?”

“What do you say we catch ourselves a vixen?”

Persephone felt a prickle on the back of her neck. Her pulse started to race.

Artemis and Hermes fixed her with two pairs of lively, glittering eyes.

Artemis grinned. “Bet I catch her first.”

“You’re on.”

Persephone only just sprang over the couch in time. Hermes and Artemis leaped like lions and careened after her. Chaotic, gleefully terrified laughter tore out of her and she bounded like a doe around the living room, while they chased her, hooting and growling. She tottered around the coffee table and they skidded to either side of it, flanking her, trapping her. Her heart battered her ribs and her clit pounded. She squealed and bolted, trying one way, then the other, then in a panic jumping onto the coffee table and wobbling violently. Hermes burst into triumphant laughter and swept her up, hoisting her over his shoulder and spinning her round as she wailed and beat her tiny fists in his broad back. He dropped her so her stomach flipped and caught her by the ass, wrapping her legs around his waist and stifling her protests with a passionate kiss. She sank into it and stayed there until her head stopped spinning.

“Rascal!” She popped her mouth free and squeaked.

“You know it.” His eyes were brighter than comets. He kissed her cheek and she blushed delightedly. He spoke over her shoulder. “What should I do with her?”

Persephone’s heart thumped.

Artemis’ voice came sultry and hungry. “We eat our prey.”

Hermes grinned at her then back at Persephone, then tucked into her neck and shoulder, nibbling like a squirrel so it stung and tickled and made her gasp. The tip of his cock nudged her clit and she gripped his shoulders and wrapped his waist with her legs and bit down on her lip. He dropped her to earth suddenly and her head reeled as he threw her to Artemis, tottering on her toes as she spun along the rug. Artemis caught her in strong, lean arms and the scent of earth and fur and chocolate enveloped her. 

“Suck her tits.” Hermes said.

Artemis bent and took Persephone’s breast into her mouth. First the nipple, flicking it firm with her tongue, then filling her mouth and running her tongue across her skin, sucking her gluttonously. She smacked her lips as she released her and spun her back to Hermes. Hermes picked her up in a tight hug that lifted her off the ground.

“Kiss her feet.” Artemis said.

Hermes glanced at her with amusement, but placed Persephone down and went gallantly to one knee. She felt warmth spread through her as he picked up one dainty foot and pressed a kiss to it, and then the other. He squeezed her thigh as he stood back up, turned her by her hips and sent her back to Artemis with a slap on her ass that sent delicious vibrations through her pussy. Artemis caught her by the hips and nipped her nose.

“Tease her clit.” Hermes said.

Persephone shook with pleasure.

“Bite her wrists.”

The pain was gentle and coaxing.

“Spank her ass.”

Those wonderful vibrations again.

“Kiss her neck.”

She sighed.

“Kiss down her back.” 

She rolled.

“Suck her ear.”

She moaned.

“Tweak her nipples.”

She shuddered.

“Stroke her with your cock.”

Hermes looped a steadying arm around her and lifted her and teased her clit and her seam with the slick, hot tip of his cock. She dug her nails into his chest and trembled.

“You doing OK with this, Perse?” He murmured softly.

She couldn’t speak. Every inch of her tingling so much that she felt like she was wearing a nettle coat. And where his cock touched her it was pure flame. She nodded. “Uhuh.”

He stilled. “Gonna need a little more.”

“So… good…” She breathed.

He smiled brighter than the sun on the sea and scooped her in his arms and kissed her. He bent to one knee and lay her on the coffee table. She shivered as the cold, hard wood met her back. The ceiling above her blurred beyond her net of tingling.

“What are you doing?” Artemis’ voice was curious and excited.

She could hear the demonic smile in Hermes’ reply. “Is that box the cupcake?”

Artemis laughed low, like the movement of roots through the earth. 

“What… what are you…” Persephone panted, writhing on the table.

“Like I said.” Artemis leaned over her and Persephone instinctively bobbed up and kissed her nipple. Artemis stroked her cheek. “We eat our prey.”

Persephone looked around wide-eyed and wriggling as Hermes popped open the box and fished out the cupcake with its generous dollop of blueberry buttercream frosting. He scooped a globule with his fingertip and winked at Persephone, then spread it just under her belly button.

_ Oh Sugar Snaps. _

Artemis reached out and scooped too and tipped her nipple with it. The frosting was cool and tickling. They leaned over to snatch impulsive kisses from each other as they dotted Persephone with the frosting, their fingers gliding on her arms and legs and face and torso. When the cupcake was bare they exchanged a firecracker glance that made Persephone’s heart buck.

_ Oh really, really Sugar Snaps. _

“Ready…”

_ Oh no. _

“Set…”

_ I mean, yes! _

“GO!”

Persephone squealed with excitement and laughter as they dove to her and began to frantically lick her clean. Their tongues danced and flailed and scraped across her skin, grazing so near her clit from all angles that she almost shrieked at them to go that last infuriating inch. She snaked and jiggled and bounced as they lashed her with pleasure and playfulness, tickling and striking and leaving her webbed with wild sensation. They giggled and snuffled on her as they went, frosting getting on the ends of their noses and on their cheeks. They kissed her and pinched her and laughed teases and compliments that she was too far gone to hear, shaking with mirth and delight, a thin film of sweat gumming her to the coffee table so it squeaked comically as she wriggled. She reached back and gripped the wooden edge and pushed her body up into their tongues, gasping desperately for air and hearing her own laughter as if from somewhere in the next room. The wisps of blue stood out on her skin like clouds across a sunset.

Artemis and Hermes pulled back, bright-eyed and breathless. Persephone’s body went freezing and she shivered. She sat hurriedly and grabbed Artemis’ jaw and feverishly kissed the mess of frosting from her face. She did the same to Hermes, still giggling through her lips. She put a hand on each of their shoulders and steadied herself and let her heart calm from a gallop to a canter.

Artemis gazed at her, shining from their mouths, her face adorably dimpled from laughter and panting, her hair a rosy mess and her legs trembling. She was delectable. 

_ This is… fun. _

Then Persephone took a deep, long breath and steadied herself and opened her eyes. They were inky magenta and captivating. They fixed on her.

“Get on the back of the couch.” Persephone commanded and there was something to be dreaded in her voice. Dark red flowers were blooming in her hair. Artemis prickled and obeyed, nimbly climbing up the cushions and sitting on the back. Persephone slid off the coffee table and stood facing her, her pretty, pear-shaped body gilded regal in the low light. She beckoned Hermes without looking at him and he followed her, standing, his jaw slack, his eyes roving over the both of them and smouldering. 

Persephone slid to kneel before Artemis on the couch and stroked her hands up her thighs. “Spread your legs.” 

Another undeniable command. Artemis did, gripping the tops of the couch cushions, feeling herself spring wet at the way Persephone’s eyes darkened on her pussy. 

Persephone kept her gaze on her as she spoke to Hermes. “I want your hands on me while I do this. Pleasure my clit.”

Hermes swallowed and smiled and nodded, his eyes drifting to her ass as she raised it up towards him, leaned forward, gave Artemis one last burning look, and sank between her legs.

Her lips were petal soft. They made their way slowly up the inside of Artemis' thighs, taunting her cruelly for long, punishing moments. Hermes stood behind her and stroked his hands over her ass, chewing his lip. Her breath scalded Artemis’ skin when he sneaked his hand between her legs and started to stroke. With one hand he cupped her and massaged her clit and with the other he massaged her back and she moaned so it hummed in Artemis’ flesh. Her mouth met Artemis’ pussy. 

“Oh, Tartarus, Persephone…”

She was softer and sloppier than Hermes. Where he explored and teased, she indulged. She moaned against Artemis’ lips and scooped her tongue between them, tasting her, savouring her. Pleasure fluttered in a mayfly burst across Artemis’ skin and her vertebrae shuffled and she clung to the cushions and leaned back so she almost toppled, letting the need for Persephone hold her there like gravity. The blood thumped behind her eyes and she rocked back and met Hermes’ gaze along Persephone’s body. He was looking at her with the same look he had before he stole something, tricky and conspiratorial. She felt a bubble rise and pop in her stomach and she smiled at him. His grin spread across his face like a torch being lit. His teeth flashed in his dark red skin and his hair was unstilled, like he was underwater. There was a vigorous, tantalising energy radiating from him, mixing with the cloying silk of Persephone’s mouth. Hermes’ bicep flexed and Persephone moaned low and wanting. Artemis and Hermes shot each other victorious glances. This had always been her favourite thing about him, he made you his co-adventurer without thinking.

Persephone slipped her mouth from Artemis. “Hermes.” She murmured. “Tease me inside.”

Hermes’ eyebrows floated up. “You sure, Perse?”

“I’m really sure.”

Artemis watched his rakish smile fade and his look turn careful and sincere. He moved his arm slowly and there was a soft, wet sound and he sighed through his nose. Persephone made a noise like there was an earthquake in her throat. She grasped Artemis’ thighs and Artemis stroked her hair soothingly as her eyes screwed shut. For a second, Artemis was nervous. Then the noise petered into high, dulcet, unintelligible murmurs and she fell back to Artemis’ pussy. Her tongue became more insistent and searching and Artemis felt it taking her apart. She was dislocating, a quiver in every single one of her joints. A violent tremor went through her legs and spine and her clit flared to almost pain. She gasped sharply and dropped from the couch back, sliding free of Persephone to curl on the seat. She ran her hands into her hair and swallowed the air to calm herself, but those two didn’t give her long to recover. 

She yapped in surprise as Hermes and Persephone both plunged into her body, one on each side, smothering her. Persephone bunched up against her and scattered kisses on her breasts and abs. Hermes lined her and tucked her sleek hair behind her ear and sucked her throat just below her jaw, stirring her blood with the tip of his tongue. His hand stole to her thigh, less than an inch from her seam, and stroked and pinched. She sighed luxuriantly and let them take her like quicksand, losing her senses in pomegranate and chilli pepper. 

“How is this, Arty?” Hermes whispered in her ear.

She bumped her temple to his brow. “This is good.”

“Safe? Comfy?”

“Yeah. How about you?”

“Fucking time of my life.”

She laughed and Persephone giggled into her belly button. Hermes’ hand crept up another inch and covered her pussy with his warm, confident touch. She ached and soared and rolled her shoulders deliciously. He circled and stroked, his fingers finding their way around her folds and teasing her gates, waves of harsher, hotter sensation engulfing her.

“Arty, do you want me to stroke you inside?” 

Artemis clenched unexpectedly. Something in her mind turned tail and something at her core went tight and froze. She swallowed. “Not yet.” She cursed herself, what had she expected was going to happen if she brought him in?

Her thoughts brimmed and for a moment they threatened to hurtle into worry and frustration. Hermes seemed to sense it. He took his hand from her and cupped her chin and brought her gaze to meet his, steady and warm. “That’s OK.” He said sincerely.

“I think I’m almost there.” She said.

He shook his head and pecked her lips. “No rush. No need.”

In all the haste of her body, something inside her felt held, secure. God of Mischief, God of Trickery, God of Thieves, and her most trusted friend. She tweaked his ear playfully and tickled the back of Persephone’s neck and gently moved them off her. They looked at her with tender concern. 

“Just taking a breather. Don’t wait, I won’t be long.” Artemis said.

“You all good?” Persephone asked, her pupils large and deep.

“I’m all very good.” Artemis grinned. “Be right back.”

She stood and put Hermes’ hand on Persephone’s belly with a chuckle and stepped lightly out of the room. She went to her bedroom, dark and cool, quiet and familiar. She put her hands to her fluttering stomach and shuffled her feet in the carpet.  _ Come back to earth, stay in the present.  _ She paced to the window, opening the curtain and scouring the night for the moon. She found it, high in the velvet sky, leaned her elbows on the sill and breathed.  _ Why am I nervous? I am Artemis. Strong-voiced. Queen of Beasts. I’m not scared of anything.  _ She let the pale glow of the moon wash over her, supping on it, letting it cleanse the noise under the pleasure in her body.  _ This isn’t a surrender. You have to stop seeing it that way. This is having something for yourself. Hermes isn’t taking anything away from you. He wouldn’t. That’s not who he is. And even if he was, he doesn’t have the power to. No man takes from the Protector of Girls. Your will isn’t in your hymen. Nothing breaks it.  _ She cupped her hands and let a trickle of moonlight pool in her palms.  _ What do you want?  _ She let the pearl brightness of the moon fill her eyes, her mind, bleach her pupils, and when it washed away she was left with a single image of Hermes and Persephone, wreathed in starlight and smiling at her. She splashed the cup of moonglow onto her face and rubbed her cooled hands on her neck.  _ OK. You can do this. Be happy, for once.  _ She took a final, resolute breath and started to walk from the bedroom. The moonlight poured from the window and flowed under her bed. It twinkled on a glittering red box. An idea hopped into Artemis’ mind.

Hermes and Persephone watched Artemis go, then sank into a deep, adoring kiss. They wrapped their arms around each other and clung close. Persephone kissed him for all the times she hadn’t, for all the times he’d sat beside her in the wildflowers and tempted her to the point of agony. She was finally giving in and it was so much better than she had dreamed. His mouth was hungry, but skilful. His lips had the perfect amount of pressure, his tongue duelled expertly with hers. She fluttered under her skin again and pulled him in hard to keep herself stable. 

His fingers sank into her back as he kissed her ardently between whispered words. "I've lost count of the number of times I've thought about this." 

Even in the volcanic heat between them, Persephone felt herself blush. Her heart spun. He’d liked her too? He’d wanted her too? "I used to watch for you every day." She murmured, feeling across his chest, finding his heartbeat.

He chuckled against her lips. "I used to take the long route to wherever I was going, so I could come see you." 

“How are you so sweet and still so wicked?” She smiled, popping a kiss on his cheek.

“How are you so adorable and still so naughty, Missy?” 

He made the sound of a jackal in the back of his throat and she squealed as he forced her roughly down and lay heavy on top of her, her breasts squashing satisfyingly on his chest and his cock nestling against her pussy and making her gush. He rolled his hips and his shaft slipped in her juices, she moaned needily and caged him with her legs. They kissed slowly, their tongues taking up the rhythm of their soft grind. Her mind filled with the moment she had first seen his cock, the memory of clasping it and feeling it swell into her palm. She didn’t exactly have a frame of reference for his size, but size didn’t really interest her. It was the way it sought her that captivated her. And its smoothness, its suppleness, the tracery of veins and nerves that made it tactile and reactive. It was a deep red, darker than the rest of his skin, darker than merlot, and it pointed towards her like an obedient, endearing, greedy hound. He slid on her, whisking her pleasure like a potter spins clay on a wheel. The idea of touching a man’s cock had always made her nervous, but now it was happening her fear had fled her, she just wanted to feel everything of him, wanted to claim him, overcome him, wanted him to want the same from her.

His heated whisper cut through her reverie. "Perse, can I come inside you?” Her clit pulsed. He kissed her temple. “It's totally cool if you're not there yet, but…" 

She ached beautifully. "Yes. Oh, Hermes, I want you inside me." 

The way his breath caught gave her a buzz. She tilted her hips and locked his eyes as he moved carefully on her. His irises streaked scarlet. His tip teased her entrance and she held her breath. 

“Relax.” He nudged her nose with his, like a puppy. “I’ve got you.”

She kissed him and it eased the tension out of her body. He slid inside her with one gentle, fluid motion. She broke their kiss and gasped wildly. The intimacy of it suspended her in time, the intensity of the pleasure gripped her. For the briefest moment, there was pain and he tightened his arms around her as she flinched, holding himself still, letting her adapt, letting her decide. Then the pain was chased away by a flowing, deep, sonorous desire. A long, shuddering breath tumbled out of her and she melted in his arms and curled her fingers on the back of his neck. He sighed and began to move again, long, slow, soft thrusts that chimed lazily in her nerves. He slipped his hand between them and rubbed her clit in his rhythm, keeping her wet so he slipped with ease. She fit to him like a sheath. He filled her at her core and the edges of the world blurred and the boundary between herself and Hermes, between solid and liquid and air, merged and swirled. His weight blanketing her was comforting and grounding, she nestled beneath it and wriggled her back into the cushions and smiled.

"Is this what you imagined?" She sighed.

"This is so much hotter than what I imagined.” He chuckled. “I'm burning up, Little Lady."

Hermes was turning to magma. Persephone was so warm and wet and her flesh was firm but it gave way to him like hot fudge. He edged quicker than he expected, her enrapturing body too much for his resilience as his torso pressed to her softness. He fought himself back from the brink and buried his face in Persephone’s perfumed neck and drove deeper into her, chasing the brink again, the pleasure coursing and effervescing over his skin and through his veins. She moaned into his ear and it was thrilling and sweet.

A strict finger stroked down his spine. 

_ Artemis. Gods, yes, come back to us. Hunt me.  _

An enticing prickle spread over his shoulder blades. The finger travelled to his ass and a hand slapped it and clutched it hard, making him jab into Persephone, so she chirruped. The finger scratched under the cup of his ass and stole to his perineum and rubbed it rhythmically. He groaned and his spine snaked and Persephone gripped the back of his neck keenly, her thighs clamping him. 

“So, Hermes.” There was a game in Artemis’ voice. 

“Uhuh?” He panted into Persephone’s neck, still thrusting and covering them in waves of desire.

“If us girls are getting a first tonight, do you want one too?”

Artemis could goad him into anything when she used this tone. It had been the same since they were kids. He grinned in the darkness, paused and kissed Persephone’s shoulder. “What do you have in mind?”

“Ever been fucked in the ass?”

His spine seized up. The roots of his hair tingled. He tried to turn to face her but Persephone cuddled him possessively, twisting a little on his cock and tormenting him. “No.” He admitted breathlessly. 

“Want to be?” Artemis tickled his tailbone.

His stomach fluttered. A hundred images raced through his mind. Persephone rubbed his chest and turned to catch his eye, pushing Artemis’ challenge. He couldn’t help but rise to it.

“Only fair, I guess.”

“Gonna need a little more.” Persephone said pointedly.

He smiled and hugged her and reached back and squeezed Artemis’ wrist. His voice came out needier than he expected. “Fuck me, goddesses.”

Artemis bit her lip, sitting on the couch arm with the dildo in her hand, gleaming with lube. She looked at Hermes’ ass, firm and pert and tempting as a red apple. She teased his perineum, the soft skin over tense muscle. She teased between his cheeks with the tip of dildo. She and Persephone exchanged a wicked glance. Hermes was such a force of nature. But they were nature goddesses. Artemis steeled herself.  _ Wield him. You know how to do that. _

Hermes writhed as the slightly cool tip of the dildo pressed on his sphincter. Persephone held him tight, clenching around him so the sensation pinged between heat on his cock and anticipation on his ass. He heaved in a breath and forced himself to relax, to lean into the newness, the thrill. Artemis rubbed his lower back, turning him to butter. She slipped inside him. Hermes ignited. The depth of sensation shocked him, made him reel. He clutched Persephone and drove into her as the dildo slid and pushed him forward. As Artemis drew it out he chased it back to keep the sensation and blushed as she chuckled low and pierced him again, driving him once more into the flood of Persephone’s body. 

Persephone moaned in unison with him and panted over his shoulder. “Keep him doing that.”

He couldn’t see her, but he knew Artemis was smiling the smile she gave deer and hares. He let her drive him. His core burned beautifully with her and his cock ached with Persephone. It was taking so much just to keep breathing. He edged again. He tried to bring himself back. It was a struggle. He lifted himself off Persephone on straight arms and she looked up at him with her wondrous eyes. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, Perse, but I think I need to ease off with you.”

She pouted at him but pecked his nose and Artemis withdrew the dildo so he could ease away from Persephone’s drugging presence and kneel, catching his breath. Artemis crept from the couch arm to kneel behind him. She looped his waist with one arm and pulled him to lean back on her strong body. He relaxed against her gratefully. She slid the dildo deep again. He sighed and trembled and dropped his head back onto her shoulder and closed his eyes. His body was untangling. He hadn’t realised how much had been pent up in his muscles until this moment. Artemis pierced him and Persephone knelt at his front and gently stroked his shaft and rolled his balls and lapped his nipples. 

“Oh My Gods… Fuck… Artemis… Persephone…”

He turned his head to Artemis and she ducked and caught him in a stirring kiss. She sucked his lower lip hard and bit it. He whimpered into her mouth and blushed.

“Told you I’d get you back.” She murmured, striking him at his centre with a more forceful thrust.

“You.” He breathed. “Did not disappoint.”

They kissed again, then she steered him by his hair to kiss Persephone. He was adrift between a cliff face and a whirlpool and he didn’t mind which took him.

Artemis pressed into the feeling of Hermes’ back rocking against her. She’d never seen him like this. It was strange, but it was moreish. Persephone’s dreamy demeanour as she turned his torso into a canvas for the artistry of her touches and her kisses was sweet and enticing, and fucking Hermes felt like ruling the stars. An ache flared up inside her, a want for something closer, something that would bind this memory to her body. She kissed his neck tenderly and spoke slowly, keeping herself steady, nursing her desire.

“My turn.”

Hermes craned to meet her eye, a flame in his pupils. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

He kissed her and smiled. “Get on top of me.”

Persephone gave Artemis a warm, encouraging smile and gave Hermes’ cock a playful pump that made him laugh as she hopped backwards on her knees and brought Hermes’ stretching out legs into her lap. Artemis climbed round to straddle him, pausing to kiss Persephone, drawing strength from her giving lips. She settled on Hermes’ hips and he sat up to put his hands protectively on her back and fold his cock into her pussy. As his heat and hardness pressed her, she felt a surge of want and her hands drifted to his chest and stroked it and around his shoulders. 

He looked at her levelly. “Tell me to stop anytime.”

She nodded. Her belly tightened and she breathed to relax it. He kissed her. It was a slow kiss. It promised safety. It was vulnerable and trusting and controlled. Artemis returned it with all her confidence and felt his lips curl. As he kept kissing her, he circled one hand on her lower back, relaxing her further, and brought his other hand between them. He started to rock his hips slightly, his cock moving on her as his fingers delved into her flesh and stirred. Pleasure shimmered across her skin. He worked her with all his attention and skill. She felt herself unlocking, unfurling, her doubt and her fear being teased away like loose threads. His hand was warm and sure as he traced to her seam and eased it wet and open. She moaned in her throat like a bear and gripped his shoulders, the hard muscle grounding her. He was still kissing her, drawing her out of herself and hooking her into the moment. He broke briefly and reached to the rug where she had discarded the dildo and lube and picked up the bottle. He squeezed a good amount into his hand and lathered his cock and round her rim, sighing into another long kiss. When they were slick and gleaming, he rubbed her back with a little more pressure and she sucked on his lip and let him help guide her to hover over his tip, letting him tease her, then down onto his cock. 

Her sinking weight pushed him deep and for a moment she tightened again and grit her teeth. Then she heard his moan, raw and yearning and helpless. She stopped feeling like he had impaled her. She was holding him, capturing him, making him shape to her. She was in control. She was taking his power and his energy into herself. He was an offering to the Goddess of the Hunt. She beamed like lightning. She cupped his face forcefully and scooped him into a hungry, joyous kiss and she began to move on him, grinding and twisting and pistoning, manipulating his length inside her to engulf her in pleasure. He groaned roughly and collapsed onto his back, his hands clutching her thighs, and he moved in sync with her. She braced herself on his abs to drive him harder and watched with a surge of power and excitement as his eyes rolled back into his head and his brow crumpled and his jaw clenched and he let out a steam of deep, coarse, pleading noises as she took him. 

Persephone slipped round to run her fingers through Artemis’ hair and scoop her breasts and roll her nipples between her fingers like she was pipping olives. Artemis moaned and kissed her fiercely and surged again as Persephone sighed. She let Persephone tease her almost sore, then snatched her hand and tugged insistently and guided her round to straddle Hermes’ abs with her back to her.

“Pin him with me.” She whispered deviously. “Look down on him.” 

The red flowers in Persephone’s hair bloomed even darker and she gave Hermes a stunning, proud, sultry look as Artemis wrapped her from behind and stroked her torso and clit, still moving ruthlessly on Hermes. 

Hermes’ eyes fluttered half open and he gazed glassy at them. “Oh, fuck, you two look incredible.” 

He ran his hands over their legs and his head fell back again and he arched his back. Artemis was filled with sensation. Hunger took her. She shoved Persephone onto all fours over Hermes and cupped her pussy. The softness filled her hand and she growled under her breath.

Persephone landed with a jolt, leaning over Hermes, and they smiled sparkling smiles at each other. His smile turned gleeful and impish as Artemis’ hand enveloped her pussy and she quivered and gasped. She sank her hands into the couch cushion just past his face and, as she tumbled forward, Hermes caught her nipple in his mouth and started to suck. She was still humming all over from when he’d been inside her and now the heat of Artemis’ hand and his mouth was overpowering. Artemis pleasured her with her whole hand, fingertips in hard, tight circles on her clit, fingers lining her lips and massaging them to flame, heel of her hand pressing her seam and awakening the spectre of Hermes’ cock. Hermes grazed her skin with his teeth and danced his tongue wildly and Persephone rocked back and forth between them and heard her voice getting higher and higher and more and more breathless.

“Oh… My… Gods…”

Artemis spanked her ass and her pussy reverberated with it.

“Oh!”

Hermes bundled her breasts in his hands and lavished his tongue on them.

“Yes!”

Artemis slipped two fingers inside her and coaxed with them as she slid them in her wetness.

“Artemis!”

Hermes rolled her nipple in his teeth.

“Hermes!”

Artemis sped up, clutched harder, pressed deeper. Hermes nibbled and smacked his lips. She felt like she was being torn apart between them, like a piece of fraying ribbon these naughty kittens were play-fighting over. Artemis pumped into her and jiggled her fingers rapidly on her clit. The fluttering under her skin burst to life, battering beneath the surface to be let free. She moaned, she whimpered, she battled furiously to contain it, but the ecstasy of their touch was drowning out her sense. She gasped desperately for air, for relief. They only spurred her on. 

“Yes! Yes! Don’t stop!”

She heard herself scream it and she bit her tongue. Hermes lashed her nipple and she screamed again. 

“Yes!”

Again.

“Oh!”

Artemis spanked her and plunged deep and hard.

“Gods, yes!”

Red petals were scattering into Hermes’ hair. The fluttering was riotous and she was shaking violently with it.

“Don’t stop!”

Artemis harpooned her.

Her pleasure erupted. She screamed. She burst apart.

Hermes yelped and Artemis screeched as Persephone exploded into a cloud of pink and white butterflies. They swarmed and stormed in the air, swirled overhead in a raucous confusion, then flocked to the sofa cushion above Hermes’ head. Persephone reformed, curled on her back and shaking and clutching her chest. She rasped the air in and mewed over and over as the pleasure died away, pebbles of it still skimming across her skin.

“Holy shit, Perse! Are you OK?” Hermes reached back and grabbed her knee.

“What was that?” Artemis leaned forward on Hermes, eyes aghast. 

Persephone gulped for breath and waved uselessly to try and indicate that she was alright, her eyes still closed and her head spinning. “Just…” She panted after a moment. “Just a thing. I’m not sure.” She waved again and burst into delighted giggles. “I’m not worried about it right now.” 

Hermes and Artemis gaped at her, then caught her laughter and the three of them teemed with it. Hermes turned from her to beam up at Artemis. He sat and wrapped her in his arms, starting their rocking up again. She was jabbed with exquisite sensation and combed her fingers into his hair and kissed him, muffling the last of his laughter and dining on the spiced taste of his lips. Seeing Persephone’s chaotic pleasure had thrilled her and now her own desire was spiking.

“What about you, Arty?” Hermes chuckled. “Are you close?”

Artemis nipped his lip. “Are you?”

“Am I?” Hermes pinched her ass. “I’ve been on the brink for so fucking long, I deserve a damn medal.”

Artemis thrust around him and moaned ragged. “I’m close. I’m definitely close.”

It was rising and receding in her, something bestial and primal and boiling.

“Give into it.” He murmured.

She sighed and felt a tinge of frustration as she fleetingly tightened and the sensation quelled. "I was never much good at giving in." 

Hermes hugged her close and his body moved on hers maddeningly. He whispered feverishly into her ear. "Then don't. Chase it. Hunt it down. Show it who's boss and rein it in and ride it rough."

Artemis snarled.

“Gods, Arty, just like that.”

The bestial feeling reared again. She bucked with her hips and rode Hermes like she was breaking a wild horse. Fast, rough, ruthless, all power and will and want. 

“Gods, fuck me, Artemis!”

His billowing breath singed her shoulder, his hands gripped her back and pulled at her skin. His cock rammed and writhed, punishingly pleasurable.

Pursuit found her again. She shut her eyes and spied her beast and took off after it with wild calls. She chased it with all her desire and she wrestled it with all her hunger.

“OOOH!”

She cried out like a lioness and the pleasure stampeded through her flesh. It pounded in her blood, rent her muscle, clawed her skin. She shoved Hermes onto his back and crushed him beneath her and curled her fingernails hard on his chest, leaving dark grooves. 

Hermes’ body rang with shock and lust. He landed in Persephone’s lap and her scent buffeted him as Artemis scored his flesh and the pain speared him. He coughed and lurched with his hips once more and he was released at last with a guttural groan and a storm of spasms up and down his spine and the backs of his legs. His wings sprang to life and flapped rapidly, battering his calves. He stared up at Artemis, her powerful position, her open blackcurrant mouth, her hair cast back off her face and streaming like she was in a hurricane. 

Outside, a chorus of howling burst from the woodland, wolves hearing their mistress’ cry.

Artemis collapsed forward onto him and her weight covered him with warmth. He closed her in his arms and nestled into the pillow of Persephone’s thighs, as she sank back into the couch dreamily and stroked their hair.

The howling died away. 

The night filled with the rhythm of their breathing.

*

A thunk roused Artemis from sleep. She blinked herself conscious. The living room was grey with the dull light on the rim of sunrise. She was on her couch in her panties and jumper, lying curled around the bundled up Persephone, who was in a large, white t-shirt and smiling in her sleep, her hair tousled in her face and peppered with wilting red petals. Artemis looked for the noise and saw Hermes gingerly steadying a small table by the couch. He was dressed, his clothes rumpled like they’d been pulled on lazily. He was grimacing at the lamp he’d obviously just elbowed pulling his hoodie on.

Artemis eased herself off Persephone, making sure not to wake her, and went to Hermes with an eyebrow raised in amusement. “Sneaking off?” She whispered.

Hermes smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve got a shift. You guys are cute when you sleep, I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“So thoughtful.”

“I know, right?”

Artemis laughed softly and tugged his hoodie ties to beckon him to the hall. They walked without speaking to the front door. He leaned against it and smiled again, his eyes gentle and a little wary.

Artemis clucked her tongue, her cheeks prickling. Somewhere inside her she felt like she should be awkward. Or panicking. But she was relaxed. She felt new, cleansed, calm.

“Do you want breakfast before you go? Or caffeine?” She asked.

“Always, but I’m kinda late.” He rubbed his elbow.

Artemis tucked her hands into her jumper sleeves. She looked at her oldest friend. He wasn’t taking his eyes off her, but he looked shy, uncertain.

“Hey.” She said tentatively. “I’m sorry about… everything.”

Hermes’ face softened. “Me too.” He seemed to steel himself. “Except this. This, I am definitely not sorry about.”

Artemis felt herself smile. “Good.”

He grinned lop-sided and his eyes flickered down and up. He glanced at her with something between mockery and concern. “Are you guys going to have an existential crisis when the orgasm wears off?”

Artemis shrugged casually. “Maybe.”

“Damn.”

“Worth it.”

He broke into a real Hermes grin. “Totally.”

Artemis caught his grin and warmed. It wasn’t the wild heat of last night. It was cosy. It was home. “Bros?”

He nodded once. “For life.”

They let out a relieved, comfortable laugh and flopped easily into a tight hug, squeezing each other affectionately, and a little competitively. She turned her face into his neck. He smelled of her and Persephone. His hair tickled her nose. She squeezed the air out of him. He made a joke squeaking noise and they relinquished each other. 

He play-punched her arm. “Later, Man.”

Artemis punched him back. He flashed her one more unabashed grin, clicked open the door and vanished.

Artemis closed the door behind him and tucked her hair behind her ear. She slid her hand from the doorknob and padded silently back to the couch. She tucked herself to Persephone’s back again and closed her in a snug, protective embrace.

“Did Hermes sneak off?” Persephone mumbled, her eyes still closed.

“Yeah.”

Persephone giggled softly. “Rascal.”

Artemis chuckled and cuddled her. “He’s the worst. How are you feeling?”

Persephone wriggled closer into her arms. “Mmmm. Really good. Still sleepy. How about you?”

“Good.” Artemis replied, smiling again into Persephone’s hair. “I’m feeling good.”

*

Hermes walked down the garden path at a leisurely pace. The cool air washed him awake and the dew glistened on the grass. The scents of lime and honeysuckle floated around him. He took a deep, refreshing breath, and blew it out through his lips, so they tingled. His blood felt calm. Chaos. Change. Mischief. Trouble. They didn’t need him today. Today he was his own man. Today he would trust his body, would enjoy being in his own skin. Really, really enjoy it. 

He sauntered out of Artemis’ and Persephone’s grounds and turned East, the pale orange light of the sun rippling over the lush, green expanse. 

A swift, giddy breeze ruffled his hair. 

He leaned into it, summoning it to him, whisking it up with his fingertips. 

He spread his wings. He bent his knees.

He took off into the dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic does some exploration of loss of virginity, specifically through penetrative sex. It isn't in any way meant to criticise abstinence or asexuality, which are 100% valid, but rather aims to focus on taking control of and having fun with your first time, if/when you choose to go for it. Virginity and sex come in infinite forms and definitions (not all penetrative). It's a really personal ongoing journey, not just a single experience, and the only way you can get it wrong is if you do something you don't want to, or disregard someone else's consent. For some open, friendly discussions on virginity, I really recommend these episodes of the Sex Nerd Sandra podcast:  
> [The Sexual Debutante](https://archive.nerdist.com/sex-nerd-sandra-36-virgin-the-sexual-debutante/)  
> [Late Bloomers](https://archive.nerdist.com/sex-nerd-sandra-119-late-bloomers-live-from-woodhull-sexual-freedom-summit/)
> 
> Also, if you wanna get freaky with a dildo and a cutie with a booty, some top tips [here](https://www.sh-womenstore.com/blog/anal-pleasure-toys/).
> 
> Have fun, lovelies!


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